Dartmouth Tops Harvard in Lone Game of the Week
Victory gives Big Green sole possession of first place
ALBANY, N.Y. -- There was just one game on the slate for the women of ECAC Hockey League, and it was a showdown between arch rivals Harvard and Dartmouth. The Big Green won the game 4-1 at its own Thompson Arena Friday night and is now in first place all by its self in the league standings. The game was also a matchup between two of the nation's top 10 teams, as Dartmouth entered the game ranked fifth nationally and Harvard was sixth.
A career-high 38 saves by Carli Clemis along with a pair of goals by Caroline Ethier led the Big Green to victory over the Crimson.
Ethier started off the scoring less than two minutes into the contest and scored her second goal of the night on the power play. The game winning goal was scored by Shannon Bowman at 13:35 in first period. Bowman took a short pass from Gillian Apps and fired it at the net and it was deflected in by a Crimson skate for a 2-0 Big Green lead at the first intermission. Harvard wasn't without its chances in the first frame though, as the squad combined for 15 shots on net, Clemis stopped them all.
Harvard's lone goal was a power-play marker that came at 11:20 in the second period. Julie Chu made a nice backdoor pass to Caitlin Cahow, who one-timed a shot on net, but it was stopped by Clemis. However, the puck rebounded out in front of the net and Jenny Brine picked it up and beat Clemis for the goal. Either's tally came less than three minutes later and Apps finished off the scoring late in the third for the 4-1 win.
Things will be quiet around the league until the end of the month, as all 12 teams are taking time off for the holidays. ECACHL teams start playing again on Friday, Dec. 29. The first game after the break has Yale playing host to Connecticut in the first game of the annual Nutmeg Classic.
Princeton, Quinnipiac and Dartmouth will also resume action that weekend.
