The road trip started with a bang, as the Big Green upset the No. 8 Red Raiders of Colgate, 3-2, on Friday. Not only did Dartmouth comeback from a 2-0 deficit on Colgate's home ice, but it did so with a rookie goalie making his first collegiate start.

Freshman Jason Wong stopped 20 Red Raider shots, including a beauty with 19 seconds left in the game, to guide the Big Green to its first conference victory.

"I found out (Thursday) night that I was starting, and I was pretty nervous," said Wong, a native of Richmond, B.C. "I started off tense, but as the game went on, I was able to get more confidence."

The game-winning goal came at 12:47 of the third period. With the score tied, 2-2, sophomore Ryan Chaytors redirected a shot by freshman Ryan Poulton past goalie Dan Brenzavich to put the Big Green up for good. Senior Darren Wercinski keyed the Dartmouth comeback, getting the Big Green on the board with a goal at 9:38 of the second period and scoring short-handed six minutes later to erase a 2-0 Colgate lead.

"Against Colgate, we showed that we could play very focused and disciplined while on the road and come out with an important win," head coach Roger Demment said. "The emphasis was on defense, and we did a tremendous job holding Colgate to 22 shots."

On Saturday, Dartmouth could not overcome three, first period goals against Cornell. Although the Big Red remained undefeated with a 6-3 win, the game was closer than the final score indicated.

Chaytors, who already had two assists earlier in the game, scored to pull the Big Green within a goal, 4-3, with 18:14 remaining in the game.

But the breaks literally didn't roll Dartmouth's way, as Cornell got a fluke insurance goal seven minutes later when defender Jeff Burgoyne dumped the puck into the corner of the Dartmouth zone. The puck ricocheted oddly off the boards and deflecting off the back Wong's skate and into the net. Wong came into the game to replace senior Scott Baker after the first period.

Junior forward Charlie Retter finished the game with a pair of goals. For Cornell (4-0, 4-0), freshman goalie Jean-Marc Pelletier registered 19 saves to pick up his first collegiate win.

"Saturday, we were able to again play within our systems, but we were plagued by some soft goals and some strange bounces," Demment said. "But we were really encouraged with the play of the Chaytors-Wilgosh-Wercinski line and the second power play unit. Those two groups accounted for all six of our goals this weekend."

But the Big Green men's hockey team was determined not to let the conditions affect their ability to simply go out and play good hockey. Its positive attitude paid off on Friday night at Colgate, as the team left Hamilton, N.Y. with its first ECAC victory of the season stunning the 10th ranked team in the nation, 3-2.

With every other Big Green line mixed up due to injuries and coaches' decisions, the steady, unchanging red line decided to come out of hibernation and take control this weekend. Center Ryan Chaytors '99 and his wingmen Darren Wercinski '97 and Jeremiah Buckley '98 were the crucial factor to the big upset over the Red Raiders.

In the first period, both teams appeared to be in a funk as neither side could get anything going on offense. Freshmen Jason Wong got his first start in goal for Dartmouth, but he only had to handle one shot on goal in the first frame from the usually deadly Colgate offense.

Colgate started looking like the 10th ranked team in the nation with the start of the second period. Fittingly, it was their senior captain Mike Harder who put the Red Raiders on the board first just 1:11 into the stanza. After Jed Whitchurch netted Colgate's second goal of the period at 12:53, the Big Green knew they had to bear down to prevent this one from getting ugly.

This is when the red line came to life, as Wercinski lit the lamp with the aid of his linemates Chaytors and Buckley at 10:22. Wercinski wasn't through, though, as he tied it up at two's on a short-handed goal off the assist from blueliner Alex Dumas '97. Wong also proved his merit in the second period with fourteen saves.

The third frame was played very close. The red line's shrewd center, Chaytors, netted what would prove to be the game winning goal about midway through the period off the assist from defenseman Ryan Poulton '00.