Big Green Return to Ice for New Year's Eve Battle at Northeastern

Game 13
Wednesday, Dec. 31: Dartmouth (5-6-1, 2-4-1 ECAC Hockey) vs. Northeastern (6-8-3, 5-4-0 WHEA)
Time: 2 p.m.
Location: Boston, Mass. – Matthews Arena
All-Time Series: Northeastern leads, 28-8-3

Game 14
Friday, Jan. 2: Dartmouth vs. Yale (6-6-1, 3-3 ECAC Hockey)
Time: 7 p.m.
Location: New Haven, Conn. – Ingalls Rink
All-Time Series: Dartmouth leads, 70-4-2

Game 15
Saturday, Jan. 3: Dartmouth vs. Brown (4-9, 1-5 ECAC Hockey)
Time: 4 p.m.
Location: Providence, R.I. – Meehan Auditorium
All-Time Series: Dartmouth leads, 42-28-9

THIS WEEK
After a two-week break, the Dartmouth women's hockey team will have a packed schedule upon returning to the ice after Christmas. The Big Green will play their final game of the 2014 portion of the season on Wednesday, Dec. 31, traveling to Boston to face Northeastern at 2 p.m. After that, they will make pit stops in Connecticut and Rhode Island to take on ECAC Hockey and Ivy League rivals Yale and Brown over the weekend.

LAST TIME OUT
At its first of six consecutive road games on Sunday, Dec. 14, Dartmouth came from behind to defeat Vermont by a score of 6-2. After trailing by two at the end of the first, the Green scored three goals in each of the final two periods to take the win. Lindsey Allen led the team with a hat trick – her second in the past month – and an assist for four points, while Laura Stacey and Kennedy Ottenbreit each had a pair of points. In net, Robyn Chemago had 26 saves.

SCOUTING THE HUSKIES
This will be just the second game that Northeastern has played this month. On Dec. 2, Union goaltender Shenae Lundberg posted a 59-save shutout to stymie the Huskies in a 1-0 decision at Matthews Arena. Northeastern attempted 119 shots in the game, but could not solve Lundberg, who helped the Dutchwomen earn its second win of the season. Union's Kathryn Tomaselli netted the only goal of the contest at the 15:23 mark of the first period. Even though they outshot Union, 59-24, the Huskies were not able to get past Lundberg to score the equalizer. Kendall Coyne leads Northeastern with 12 goals, 11 assists and 23 points.

LAST TIME AGAINST NORTHEASTERN
On Nov. 29, 2013, the Huskies' Kelly Wallace scored with 1:52 remaining in regulation to lift the visitors to a 2-1 victory at Thompson Arena. The story of the night was the stellar play of goalie Lindsay Holdcroft, who finished the game with 40 saves in the Big Green crease. However, the OT winner managed to find a small portion of open net to hand Dartmouth the setback. The Green and White held a 1-0 lead for much of the contest as Karlee Odland's second of the season put them up just 6:59 into the affair. Northeastern evened the score at 13:02 in the third when Hayley Scamurra went high under the crossbar from just below the left circle, beating the senior netminder for the first time all night as the Huskies desperately sought to tie the game in the final frame. Prior to Wallace's winner, Holdcroft came up with two point-blank saves right on the doorstep before the puck shifted from one side of the slot to the other to set up the game-ending tally.

SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS
Much like Northeastern, Yale has been away from the ice for almost a month. The Bulldogs are most recently coming off a road sweep of Union and Rensselaer over the weekend of Dec. 5, defeating the Dutchwomen by a score of 4-2 before handing the Engineers a 3-2 loss. Prior to that, Yale had tough losses to Boston College, Quinnipiac and Connecticut but, on Nov. 21, shutout Sacred Heart, posting a score of 13-0.

LAST TIME vs. YALE
Dartmouth clinched its fifth straight ECAC Hockey Tournament appearance on Feb. 22, 2014 after topping Yale, 2-1, at Ingalls Rink. The triumph was the 11th straight for the Big Green against the Bulldogs, with each of the last four being decided by one goal. Devon Moir deflected a shot from the point past Yale's netminder Jaimie Leonoff just over seven minutes into the second period for what proved to be the game winner. Olivia Whitford started the play with a pass to Ottenbreit, who fired a shot that Moir tipped home. The tally broke a 1-1 tie as the two Ancient Eight rivals played scoreless hockey over the final 33 minutes.

SCOUTING BROWN
The Bears last took to the ice on Dec. 5 and 6 and, like Yale, faced RPI and Union. Unlike the Bulldogs, the results for Brown were slightly different. Despite a third-period surge that featured five goals by five different scorers, they were not able to overcome a 7-0 deficit in a 7-5 loss at RPI. The following day, Brown fell to Union, 3-2, netting its second goal with 1:29 remaining, but not being able to find an equalizer despite three more shots on goal in the final minute. The Bears' last win was a 2-1 win at home against Providence on Nov. 28.

LAST TIME AGAINST THE BEARS
Dartmouth's one tie of the 2013-14 season came in a 3-3 draw against Brown on Jan. 11, 2014. The Green got on the board first when Whitford passed to Allen, who fired a shot on goal. Allen's bid was turned aside by Brown goaltender Aubree Moore, but Ottenbreit was there to slam home the rebound at 7:32 in the second period. Just over two and a half minutes later, the Bears knotted the game at one when Janice Yang scored. Yang's tally capped the scoring in the period as the conference rivals entered the final 20 minutes deadlocked. Both offenses erupted in the final stanza as the teams combined to score four goals. Sarah Robson gave the Bears their first lead of the game with a goal just 39 seconds into the third but, three minutes later, Dartmouth tied it up as Mackenzie St. Onge scored her second career goal. Less than a minute after an Allen goal gave the Big Green the go-ahead goal, Brown tied the game for the third and final time as Yang potted her second of the night.

ECAC HOCKEY STANDINGS
Since Dartmouth is the only team that has been in action over the past two weeks, the ECAC Hockey standings have not changed since early December. Quinnipiac is first with a conference record of 6-1-2, while Clarkson is right behind with a 6-2-1 mark. The Big Green sits in eighth with a 2-4-1 record, ahead of Brown, Colgate, RPI and Union.

HUDAK & CO.
Having been with the Big Green women's hockey team since the 2003-04 season, Mark Hudak has compiled a record of 210-115-29 as he continues through his 12th season. His accomplishments with the team include two Ivy League titles, two ECAC Tournament titles, one ECAC regular-season title, six NCAA Tournament appearances and two Frozen Four showings. On the bench, Hudak is joined by associate head coach Holley Tyng, who is in her 10th season with the team, and assistant coach Josh Liegl, who returns to the Big Green coaching staff for his third year.

CAPTAINS
The Green and White are led by captain Karlee Odland, and alternate captains Illikainen and Catherine Berghuis. This is the first time since the 2010-11 season that just one player will wear the 'C'. So far in the 2014-15 season, Odland leads with four goals and three assists for seven points. Berghuis has netted two and three helpers, and Illikainen has tallied a pair of goals and assists.

LEADING THE WAY
With her six goals and nine assists, Stacey leads the Big Green with 15 points. The junior has scored at least one point in all but two games this season and had a season-high four points (one goal, three assists) in the 6-2 victory over New Hampshire on Oct. 26. Allen is Dartmouth's leading goal scorer with 10 markers, while also tallying two helpers, to total 12 points. She is the only Big Green player so far this season to have scored a hat trick, let alone two, helping to lead Dartmouth to a 5-1 victory over St. Lawrence on Nov. 8 and a 6-2 win at Vermont on Dec. 14.

FRESH FACES
Four freshmen were added to the roster at the start of the season. The talented group consists of forwards Brooke Ahbe, Elena Horton and Morgan Turner, and defenseman Hailey Noronha. Ahbe was selected to the United States U18 National team that won silver at the U18 World Championships in Hungary this past year, while Noronha was a two-time member of the Canada U18 National Team that won gold in Budapest in March. Horton and Turner's teams have both played at the USA National Championships. Since first donning the Green and White uniform in October, Turner and Ahbe have each netted one goal and Horton has tallied one assist. Noronha leads the group with three helpers.

BETWEEN THE PIPES
At Vermont, Chemago stopped a total of 26 shots to earn the win. After playing every minute in net so far this season, she has 289 saves, which is already a career-high for her by well over 100. She has allowed 34 goals, has a save percentage of .895 and has 2.82 goals against average.

WHAT'S NEXT FOR DARTMOUTH?
The Big Green will play two more road games against conference rivals Rensselaer and Union on Friday and Saturday, Jan 9-10, before hosting a trio of Ivy Leagues games over the following two weekends.

Schedules