Inside College Hockey | Super Sophs Boost Dartmouth

November 20, 2008

By Joe Gladziszewski

The most important game in Dartmouth’s current four-game winning streak might have been a loss. The Big Green opened the season with a loss against Harvard and then hosted nationally-ranked Vermont on a Sunday night in early November. Halfway through the first period, the Catamounts scored two goals in a span of two minutes to jump out in front of the Big Green.

Joe Stejskal's five power-play goals rank tied for third nationally.

That’s when things changed for Dartmouth. A goal late in the period was the first part of a two-part answer and the second part of the answer was provided by sophomore defenseman Joe Stejskal, whose power-play goal with 2:28 left in the third knotted the score. It spoke to a newfound toughness for the Big Green, the desire and ability to battle back from behind and to handle adversity well. Vermont eventually won the game in overtime, but it was the last time Dartmouth has tasted defeat. Since then, it’s been four straight wins in league games and a spot near the top of the standings.

“We were down 2-0 against Vermont and we battled back. Maybe last year we would’ve thrown in the towel but this year there is no excuse,” standout sophomore defenseman Evan Stephens said. “That Vermont comeback was one, and in the game against St. Lawrence they tied it up late and we came back and won in overtime.”

The St. Lawrence win came on home ice last weekend, with both Stejskal and Stephens scoring power-play goals early on, and fellow sophomore Adam Estoclet scoring the OT-winner to essentially nullify St. Lawrence’s tying goal with 1:22 left in the third period.

That Dartmouth trio is part of a nine-member sophomore class that seems like wise old owls to the nine-member freshman class that followed it to Hanover. The second-year group brought back a little bit of experience, and a little bit of passion.

“Last year we were young, and we’re young again this year, but there’s more experience and we weren’t satisfied with what happened last season,” Stejskal said. “We came back hungrier this year.”

Estoclet leads the Big Green with 10 points, but Stejskal and Stephens are a dynamic duo on the blue line. Stejskal has scored six goals already, five on the power play, and has seven points. This comes after a freshman year in which he had a goal and four assists. Stephens has five points through six games and was an ECAC Hockey Third Team and Rookie Team selection last year.

Stejskal attributes his power-play proficiency to the bounce of the puck - things definitely need to go your way when you’re regularly firing from the blue line - but also to the team’s work ethic. Battling on the power play and competing for loose pucks, time, and space gives everyone more chances. Lazy, tentative power play units are easy for penalty killers to defend.

Evan Stephens was on two All-ECAC Hockey teams last year as a freshman.

The group of nine has combined to play 50 man-games out of a possible 54 this season. Seven sophs have dressed every night.

“All nine of us are more confident and we have learned a lot from a good group of older guys helping us along,” Stephens said. “We knew we wanted to have a big impact.”

Matching up against the likes of league powers Cornell, Clarkson, Princeton, and St. Lawrence makes the task of beating those teams less daunting this time around. It allowed the Big Green youngsters some confidence heading into those meetings.

Further confidence comes from another young player, freshman goalie Jody O’Neill who has been between the pipes for all four wins in the current streak. He’s won the job for now, following the graduation of senior Mike Devine who played 91 games over the last four years. O’Neill has a 2.19 goals-against average and .939 save percentage.

“He’s an incredible goalie. You could tell right away when he came on the ice, he has a confidence about him. He’s a quiet kid but you can see his confidence by the way he plays. He’s not flashy, he is in the right position moving across the net,” Stephens said. “He also doesn’t get rattled. If we make a mistake he’s there for us and that gives us a chance to make up for it at the other end.”

Dartmouth’s first ECAC Hockey two-game road trip of the season saw the Big Green grab four points at Union and Rensselaer. They’re back in the Empire State this weekend to take on Colgate Friday and Cornell Saturday. The test is tough, but the lessons learned over the past 14 months have made Dartmouth tough enough to handle the challenge.