The women's ice hockey team will be at home this weekend for its last two games of the regular season against the University of Vermont and No. 3 Dartmouth. The Bears currently sit in fifth place. Although they cannot move up in the standings from their current three-way tie, they still could use a four-point weekend to keep them from falling down to seventh.
With a 9-8-1 league record (12-13-2 overall), the Bears are out of the battle for home-ice advantage for the first round of the ECACHL playoffs, but finishing as a higher seed remains important. Two weeks away from the playoffs, a better seed would mean the difference between a match-up with a team such as fourth-seeded Yale - against whom the Bears have historically had great success - or an opponent like Dartmouth or Harvard, who are in a first-place tie.
Princeton and Colgate University are also gunning for the fifth seed.
Vermont is currently tenth in the eleven-team league, but despite Bruno's win against them on Feb. 5, the team is not taking this game lightly. "We have (two) big games this weekend," said co-captain Amy McLaughlin '05. "We played both teams at the beginning of the month. We started out strong against Dartmouth and then gave up the lead, and Vermont we only beat 1-0, so we know we definitely have to show up this weekend."
Brown hockey fans should be looking forward to Saturday's tilt with Dartmouth, whose record of 16-2-0 (23-3-0 overall) shows its unexpected success in women's college hockey this season. The Big Green won the previous match-up with Brown, 6-3, but not without a spirited effort on the part of the Bears. Saturday's game will be exciting, as Dartmouth looks to solidify their burgeoning role as ECACHL powerhouse and national contender, a role that once belonged to Brown.
Additionally, this weekend will mark the last regular season home game of the Bears' senior class. Co-captains McLaughlin and Katie Guay '05, assistant captains Kerry Nugent '05 and Jessica Link '05, and scoring-machine Krissy McManus '05 will all graduate in May.
The games will start on Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 4 p.m. at Meehan Auditorium.
