Women's hockey falls to Dartmouth, has no trouble with hapless Vermont

The best and worst of women's college hockey stopped by Hobey Baker Rink this weekend, both leaving with their respective titles safe and secure. Princeton (15-7-3 overall, 10-4-0 Eastern College Athletic Conference-North)pummeled Vermont, still without a point in the ECAC, 7-0 Friday but fell to mighty Dartmouth, ranked fifth in the country, 5-1 on Saturday.

Hosting the Catamounts, the Tigers had little trouble throwing another defeat onto the soaring pile of disappointments Vermont (1-28-1 overall, 0-16-0 ECAC-North) has buried itself under this season. Sophomore forward Gretchen Anderson sprayed 13 shots at Catamount freshman goalie Kami Cote, scoring four times in the Friday night romp.

It took 25 minutes, 48 seconds for Anderson to earn a hat trick as she scored twice in the first period before getting her third nearly six minutes into the second. At 13:43 she scored her fourth, and most bizarre, goal, when she slid the puck from behind the goal line across the crease and ricocheted it off Cote's skate and into the net. The score was Gretchen Anderson 4, Vermont 0. Anderson calmed down, opting instead to assist on the next Princeton goal by sophomore forward Susan Hobson on a power play at 18:30.

Princeton outshot Vermont 49-10, including 18-1 in the first period and 21-5 in the second. Junior goalie Sarah Ahlquist picked up the easy victory, needing just 10 saves to record the shutout. The less-fortunate Cote was bombarded with pucks, stopping 42 in the loss.

First-place Dartmouth would not go down so easily.

"Today is a very special day for our program," Princeton head coach Jeff Kampersal '92 said over the loudspeaker to the Baker Rink crowd just before the puck dropped Saturday afternoon. It was Senior Day for the four Tigers in the class of 2002 — defender Aviva Grumet-Morris, defender Melissa Deland, forward Jessica Fedderly, and defender Wanda Mason. Unfortunately for the Tigers, all things special would end after Kampersal spoke briefly about each of the seniors and handed them a bouquet.

Once the puck dropped, Dartmouth was in control. The Big Green was up 2-0 after six minutes, a lead that held throughout the period, and never seemed worried. Anderson got free for a slapshot in the final minute of the first, but could not get to her own rebound after knocking junior goalie Amy Ferguson off balance.

"We came out flat from the very beginning," Kampersal said. "Playing Vermont the day before, we had all day to make any decision we wanted to, and [Saturday] we didn't. We weren't prepared for their speed."

After holding Dartmouth (20-4-2, 12-2-0) scoreless for over 20 minutes, Princeton cooked up a disastrous situation when Gooldy and Fedderly went off for penalties within 20 seconds of each other, giving the Big Green the two-man advantage. The Tigers were resolute, however, holding Dartmouth to just one shot on the power play while successfully killing it off. Hobson responded to the shifting momentum by taking a pass from Gooldy and Brown in front of the net and punching it past Ferguson to cut the lead to 2-1.

That's as close as Princeton would get. Dartmouth junior forward Carly Haggard scored two goals, one at 18:22 of the second and a back-breaking shorthanded goal at 13:44 of the third, to give her squad a 4-1 lead and seal the victory.

The Big Green dominated the shooting battle by a margin of 38-14 in a physical, penalty-laden game 38-14. Sophomore goalie Megan Van Beusekom made 33 saves for Princeton in the loss, while Ferguson stopped 13 for Dartmouth. Both teams wasted their power play chances — Dartmouth was 0-3 and Princeton was 0-5.

Princeton's shot at an ECAC-North crown evaporated with the loss to Dartmouth. The Big Green lead the division with 24 points while Princeton sits in fourth with 20 points behind St. Lawrence (23) and Brown (21). The Tigers wrap the season up at Brown and Harvard next weekend. Dartmouth hosts St. Lawrence for two games, meaning that, regardless of the outcome of those games, Princeton cannot catch the division leader.