On Friday night before an unusually large crowd at Thompson Arena, the Big Green put forth a solid effort but still ended up on the short side of a 6-4 decision.

Four times the Tigers pulled ahead and four times the Green bounced back to even the score. But when Princeton's Scott Bertoli capitalized on a big Dartmouth giveaway with under three minutes to go to break a 4-4 tie, the Big Green for the first time all night did not have an answer.

In a wide-open slugfest that again featured controversy because of the decade-old Dartmouth-Princeton tennis ball tradition, Princeton's veteran line of Bertoli, Jeff Helpern and Casson Masters accounted for all six Tiger tallies.

Gaudet was clearly frustrated after the loss. "The team can’t play much better," Gaudet lamented. "We have a bunch of kids that work their butts off every single day. I told them this isn’t the way it's supposed to be." But Gaudet vowed, "we will find a way ... and when we win, it’s going to be that much sweeter." Ironically Gaudet's words were to come true against Yale.

Bertoli's big tiebreaking goal came after Shane Ness '98 gave the puck away near the Big Green blueline, and Bertoli intercepted and swooped in around the net. Wong made the initial stop, but Bertoli was able to pick up his own rebound to make it 5-4 Princeton with just 2:32 to go in regulation.

Helpern's third goal of the night, an empty-netter with 34 seconds remaining, closed out the scoring at 6-4.

Princeton jumped out to a 1-0 on a tally by Helpern 7:24 into the first, but after Wilgosh evened the score at 12:24, the torrent of tennis balls that always marks the first Dartmouth score against Princeton was unleashed from the hundreds of Dartmouth students in the rink -- causing a seven-minute delay.

Referee Mike Noeth warned the Big Green that if any more tennis balls were thrown onto the ice for the duration of the game, Dartmouth would be penalized.

Sure enough, Wilgosh's second goal invited a couple of tennis balls, and Noeth penalized the Green. The Tigers immediately capitalized, getting Helpern's second goal of the evening on a deflection in front for a 3-2 lead.

Jon Sturgis '98 evened the score at 3-3 just 3:47 into the third period, and the two teams would trade goals just once more before Bertoli and Helpern put the game away late in the period.

Regarding the tennis ball controversy, which Gaudet claims resulted in an unnecessary penalty since after the second Dartmouth goal the game was hardly delayed, Princeton Head Coach Don Cahoon said that if fans ignore the referee's warnings then the offending team should be penalized. "It certainly worked to [Dartmouth’s] detriment tonight," he said.