Dartmouth women's hockey gets to enjoy a relatively light week with just one match-up. However, before Dartmouth can rest, the Big Green must square off against No. 5 Harvard (17-2-3, 13-2-2 ECAC) on Friday night.
For the past four weeks, Dartmouth (7-15-1, 6-10-1 ECAC) has played two games every weekend, which means a one-game weekend is a welcome relief so that players may use the extra day to nurse any injuries.
Last weekend, Dartmouth lost both its games against Quinnipiac and Princeton. Harvard fared much better, defeating Princeton and tying Quinnipiac. However, Harvard is coming off a very short week as it played Northeastern on Tuesday night and lost 4-3. Once the final buzzer sounds on Friday, Harvard will have played four teams over the course of a week.
In the first match-up between both teams, Harvard shut-out Dartmouth 5-0.
As with the first game, Dartmouth's top line of Laura Stacey '16 (12 points), Lindsey Allen '16 (13 goals) and Catherine Berghuis '16 (nine points) will be hard pressed to score on Harvard's goaltending, which has an impressive 95.3 percent save percentage.
Harvard's offense can be just as intimidating as its goaltending, averaging 2.8 goals per game, as well as succeeding on 15 percent of its power-play opportunities. The Crimson also have three skaters with double-digit goals and seven with double-digit points.
Harvard currently maintains the #1 seed in the ECAC while Dartmouth is tied for #8 seed with RPI.
A win for Harvard would keep Harvard at least two points ahead of No. 3 Clarkson for first in the ECAC, whereas a Harvard loss and Clarkson win would cause a first-place tie. Dartmouth arguably needs the win more to keep pace with RPI, or to start distancing itself from RPI in an effort to seal the final playoff spot.
Puck drop is at 7:00 pm at Thompson Arena.
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