The Dartmouth men's hockey team was rolling in 1996

At 7-4 on Dec. 31, the Big Green was off to its best start since the 1978-79 season. In addition to having matched its entire win total from last season, the team had seven wins before the new year for the first time in 40 years.

But enter 1997. As the apple dropped, so did Dartmouth's momentum. The Big Green has lost four of its last five games and three ECAC contests in a row.

After the recent span, Dartmouth is still 8-7 overall, but its 3-6 ECAC record has the team sitting in 11th place in the conference.

"It's obvious that we've dug a little hole for ourselves, but I don't think it's time to call 9-1-1 just yet," head coach Roger Demment said. "We have to get back to taking one game at a time, and I think we'll string some wins together and get back into the thick of things."

Demment emphasized the need for his team to play solid hockey for an entire contest.

On Jan. 10, Dartmouth fell behind, 5-1, by the second period of its game at Yale. The team then came alive ¯ but the charge was too little, too late, as the Big Green fell short, 5-4.

The defeat left Dartmouth in need of a clutch performance, and the team responded ¯ at least for 52:39.

With a 2-1 lead on Jan. 11, the Big Green was 7:21 away from an upset of first-place Princeton. But then it fell apart, as the Tigers scored three goals in the next four minutes to fuel a 4-2, come-from-behind victory.

As with a 3-2 overtime loss to Harvard on Jan. 4, Dartmouth had squandered a 2-0 lead.

"The main thing we have to do is put together 60 minutes of hockey," Demment said. "That kept us back over the past two weekends ¯ playing well for two periods but not all three."

As far as the conference race goes, the Big Green has several factors working in its favor. Dartmouth has played the fewest amount of ECAC games, so it will have more chances to gain ground on the teams ahead in the standings.

Second, a case could be made that the Big Green has gotten through the tough part of its schedule - road games at three of the top four teams in the conference and one of its games against perennial power Vermont.

Finally, the team is confident in its ability to get back to the solid hockey it played earlier this season.

"We've lost our last few games," said senior Owen Hughes, "but we'll go back to the drawing board, figure out what's going wrong and get going again."

And, according to Demment, ability is not the problem with this squad.

"This team is too good of a hockey team not to be able to turn things around and make the playoffs," he said.