Coming off an impressive Carnival weekend that saw the Big Green put together 120 minutes of solid hockey, Dartmouth sputtered on the road this weekend, managing a 5-2 victory over Union and suffering an 8-3 shelling from RPI. At Achilles Rink on Friday night, the Big Green showered Skating Dutchmen netminder Leeor Shtrom for two periods before finally hitting paydirt with four third period goals. Saturday night, the Engineers put on an offensive clinic, as their skilled forwards picked apart Dartmouth's defense, netting all eight goals in the first two periods

Entering the weekend in sole possession of eighth place, Dartmouth (6-11-1 ECAC, 10-14-1) now holds the final playoff spot as Harvard and UVM capitalized on four point weekends to move into a tie for eighth. Brown sits three points behind the Big Green in eleventh.

Union

Back by goalie Leeor Shtrom's 42 saves, lowly Union (1-15-2 ECAC, 3-22-3) kept the game close before Dartmouth's offensive juggernauts stepped up in the third period with four goals to carry the Big Green to a 5-2 victory.

Dartmouth seemed uncomfortable on the comparably smaller ice surface, not fully adjusting until the third period.

"Achilles Rink is funny like that," said senior captain David Risk. "Typically, things happen so quickly that if you are not accustomed to it, it can catch you by surprise. That was the case for us for the first two periods."

Shtrom entered the third period with 29 saves, but Union held the lead 2-1 after a power-play goal by Mason Anderson at 13:05 broke the 1-1 tie after the first period.

Scott Peach '99 started the third period flurry for Dartmouth, warming up for what would be a big scoring weekend for the senior blueliner. Taking the feed from Jamie Herrington '02, who would finish the game with three assists, Peach found the back of the net at 7:49 to tie the game at two.

Assistant captain and leading goal scorer Ryan Chaytors got the game winner on a 4-on-4 situation off a face-off at 13:18.

"I won the puck back, and there was a scrum at the top of the right circle," said Chaytors. "Herrington fed it to me down low, and I was all alone in front of the net."

Thirty seconds later, Mike Maturo '02 deposited a Chris Baldwin '02 rebound in the back of the net to give Dartmouth a secure 4-2 lead.

Chaytors added his fourth short-handed goal of the season on a 4-on-6 situation late in the game, with the assist once again from Herrington.

"We came on strong at the end of the game," said Chaytors. "He made some great saves in the second to keep it tight, but then we finally started capitalizing on our chances in the third period."

RPI

Televised live as the ECAC game of the week, the Big Green probably wish they could have edited this one for content. RPI (11-6-1 ECAC, 18-9-1), the ECAC's top scoring team at 3.93 goals per game, boosted that average on Saturday with their second eight goal outing against Dartmouth. In their first meeting on November 13th, the Engineers cruised to an 8-5 victory at Thompson Arena.

Dartmouth knew going in that they had to protect the puck in neutral ice and try to work it up along the boards to neutralize the speed and skill of RPI's forwards. However, turnovers and effective Engineer forechecking plagued the Big Green all night, as every RPI shot seemed destined for the back of the net.

"We had the right game plan in mind, but we didn't execute it very well," said Chaytors. "Everytime they came down they were getting open net chances. That's the type of thing we really have to avoid against teams like that."

The shoot-out started in the first period after Gary Hunter `02 netted his first collegiate goal to give Dartmouth a brief 1-0 advantage. RPI answered with four consecutive goals to get the stat-building night started. Matt Murley, RPI's freshmen phenom, added two assists on his way to a four point night, and Keith Dupee scored twice to build a 4-1 RPI advantage.

Late in the period, Peach wound up from the top of the circle and whizzed a slapper past Joel Laing. The scorer gave credit for the goal to Curtis Wilgosh, but the puck appeared to deflect off the defensemen, not Wilgosh, in front of the net. Regardless, the goal put Dartmouth back in the game, down two after one.

RPI's Brad Tapper extended the lead to three with a power-play goal at 4:46 in the second. Dartmouth's penalty-kill unit, the worst in the ECAC, surrendered goals on RPI's two power-play opportunities.

Peach, the offensive star of the weekend with four points, once again cut the Engineer lead to two with a quick blast from the circle to Laing's far side.

"The hockey gods are smiling kindly upon me right now, although it seems like they took a brief hiatus from smiling on our team last night," said Peach. "That just means we have to sacrifice a little more in practice, and bounce back."

That's as close as the Big Green would come the rest of the way. Risk had an open shot clang off the post, before Murley increased the lead to 6-3.

Adding injury to insult, Peach went down late in the second period with a painful groin injury that will leave him questionable for next weekend. Peach leads all Big Green defensemen in scoring with 18 points.

RPI did not slow down late in the period, scoring their final two goals just one minute apart to build their five goal advantage that would hold as the final.

Dartmouth faces Yale and Princeton next weekend to wrap up the regular season home campaign. Like last year, Dartmouth is battling for its playoff life with four games remaining.

"Yale and Princeton are both hard working, successful teams," said Risk. "We have the most success when we take care of ourselves and play our game. We've proven we can play with anyone in the league. It's up to us to focus on what we have to do, and the rest will take care of itself."