Hanover
Nope, the Big Green simply cannot score, a 1-0 setback to No. 8 Cornell being its third consecutive shutout loss and sixth of the season. After winning three consecutive contests earlier this month, Dartmouth has dropped four in a row at a time when it hopes for reaching the ECAC playoffs are increasingly vulnerable.
“We’ve been aware of the standings the last couple of weeks,” said forward Devon Moir, whose team entered the weekend 33rd out of the 35 NCAA Division I women’s hockey teams in scoring offense with an average of 1.25 goals per game. “We know that this is our playoffs, that we need to get those points and get ahead of other teams.”
Dartmouth is 10th in the 12-team ECAC, in which only the top eight teams reach the conference tournament. The Big Green has six points, leaving it seven points behind Yale and Rensselaer, which are tied for eighth place. There are seven conference games left for all teams and sixth-place Colgate, which visits Thompson Arena this afternoon, beat Harvard, 4-0, on Friday.
Dartmouth was 6-19-3 last season, posting the fewest victories in a campaign since the program’s varsity start in 1977. The Big Green finished 10th in the ECAC, six points out of a postseason berth, missing the playoffs for just the third time since their 1989 inception. Two of those absences have occurred during the past seven seasons.
“We created some really good chances at the end, but we just couldn’t bury one,” said first-year Dartmouth coach Laura Schuler, whose team is 5-16 overall and 3-12 in conference play.
“Overall, I’m really happy how our team is playing defensively. We’ve only had 10 goals against us in the last seven games. We’ve just got to find ways to generate more offense.”
Dartmouth was outshot, 29-13, including an 11-2 deficit during the second period. Significant stretches of the game were played mostly on Dartmouth’s side of the center line as Cornell improved to 14-6-2 overall and 10-3-2 in the ECAC.
“That’s because we’re playing the No. 8 team in the country and they have some really, really, really good players,” Schuler said. “When you play a team like that, I’m more concerned about how we’re playing defensively. I don’t think we gave them a lot and we got better every period.”
The Big Red’s goal came during the 10th minute after Dartmouth defenseman Caroline Shaunessy couldn’t handle the puck cleanly outside the offensive blue line. Cornell’s Kaitlin Doering burst past her and raced up the left side with a teammate to her right.
Skating backwards against the rush, Dartmouth’s Bailee Brekke chose to lock down the middle of the ice, leaving Doering free. Doering moved off the wall and into the circle as she approached goaltender Robyn Chemago, beating the senior backstop with a shot over the glove and inside the far post.
“A lot of times in the NHL now, you see how much they overplay the puck carrier,” Schuler said. “But our defender was so committed to the receiver that if she’d moved across, who knows what would have happened with giving up a nice pass? We got caught standing flat-footed in the neutral zone and it was an unfortunate goal.”
Don’t take that as an overall indictment of Chemago, however, whose .928 save percentage is third among ECAC netminders.
“She gives us a chance to win each time we step on the ice, and you can’t ask for more,” Schuler said. “Her focus has been great and we’ll just keep working on trying to get some bounces.”
The coach said that will happen through renewed emphasis on firing one-time shots and cleanly receiving passes so the puck doesn’t bounce off Big Green stick blades.
“We need to continue to keep working on tiny skill habits, like shooting directly off the pass,” Schuler said, adding that her players have improved their overall awareness of available time and space. “Tonight, we had opportunities to do that and we stopped the puck and didn’t. Goal scorers are goal scorers but you can work on small, technical aspects that will help increase your chances.”
Said Moir: “We know we’re not scoring; we’re not oblivious to that and we’re definitely trying to focus on it. It’s a balance between trying to stay loose and trying to get the puck in the back of the net.”
Notes: Five of Dartmouth’s remaining seven games are at home. … Moir on Friday became the fifth Dartmouth senior to have played her 100th career game. The Big Green will graduate seven players after the current campaign, all of whom play regularly and who have produced 26 of the team’s 60 points this winter. That includes Kennedy Ottenbreit and Eleni Tebano, who are tied for the team lead with 10 points. That total put the pair 62nd in ECAC scoring entering the weekend. … Dartmouth is 3-8 during its last 11 games, has been outscored, 54-25, this season and has scored a conference-low seven goals during the third period. The Big Green has surrendered 20 tallies during the final stanza. … Cornell’s roster features 13 Canadians, while Dartmouth’s has 12.