February 25, 2006
First Time Ever: Dartmouth Wins ECAC
CHN Staff Report
HANOVER, N.H. — Dartmouth won its first ECAC regular-season title since the league was formed in 1961-62 by defeating St. Lawrence, 3-0, at Thompson Arena on Saturday.
David Jones' hot play down the stretch is one reason Dartmouth is ECAC regular-season champs.
Dartmouth finished in a tie with Colgate with 30 points each, but won the tiebreaker and will be seeded first. The teams will be considered co-champions, however, of the Cleary Cup.
Saturday's clinching win came a little late, as the game was delayed 75 minutes while St. Lawrence navigated around a 25-car accident that closed down Interstate 93 en route to Hanover.
Sophomore Mike Devine, who assumed the No. 1 job as goaltender in midseason, picked up the shutout.
Dartmouth won the league after starting 0-4. It went 8-1-1 in the last 10 ECAC games.
Dartmouth was a strong team in the 1940s and 1950s under legendary head coach Eddie Jeremiah, but has spent much of its ECAC existence as also-rans. Since Bob Gaudet took over as head coach in 1997-98, the Big Green has improved, but has not been able to get over the hump with a championship of any kind, until now.
Dartmouth's only previous brief period of success came in the late 1970s, when Gaudet was Dartmouth's goaltender. In 1979-80, Dartmouth came in first place in the Ivy Division of the ECAC, which was split into three divisions at that time. And Dartmouth earned bids to the four-team NCAA Tournament in both 1979 and 1980.
Dartmouth receives a bye in the first round of the ECAC Tournament, which starts next weekend. It will play the worst remaining seed among the 5-12 best-of-3 first-round series.
