Battle for Ivy Hockey Crown Boils Down to Just 2 Teams

Dartmouth kept its Ivy League title as well as ECAS playoff hopes alive Saturday night with a 4-3 victory over Brown at Providence. Brown (9-12) on the other hand has been eliminated from a shot at the playoffs.

Bill Dunbar led the Big Green attack as he scored the winning and tying goals in the third period. The Bruins had the lead, 3-1, going into the final stanza, but a determined Dartmouth squad kept firing on the Brown net, racking up 61 shots on the goal during the game. Brown kept pace with 50 shots on net.

Dartmouth's win combined with Yale's upset of Harvard in New Haven Saturday night puts the Ivy race into a deadlock that will be decided Wednesday night in Hanover when the two teams meet for the second time this season. Dartmouth won the first encounter by a 5-4 margin.

Both the Big Green and the Crimson have 14 points on seven wins and three losses. Cornell also has 14 points, but the Big Red has played eleven games and stands third with one more loss than Harvard and Dartmouth.

Behind Cornell, Penn and Princeton each have ten points, but the Quakers are 5-5, while the Tigers are 5-6. Yale is now 3-6 in the league, and Brown is in command of the cellar with a 2-8 slate.

Cornell's only hope of regaining a share of the crown it has held for the past nine years is for the winner of the Harvard-Dartmouth contest to lose its final league game the following Saturday. Harvard hosts Yale, while Dartmouth hosts Brown on March 2.

If both the Crimson and the Big Green split their remaining two and Cornell beats Penn in Philadelphia on Saturday, then it's a three-way tie for league honors.

Rounding out this week's schedule on Wednesday, Yale will be at Brown in a battle for last place, while Penn will play at Princeton.

In scoring, Harvard leads the pack with Jim McMahon, Kevin Carr, Steve Dagdigian, Randy Roth and Bob Goodenow out in front in the league. Dartmouth's Tom Fleming is close behind, as is Yale's captain Bob Kane, who has reached the 100 career-point plateau this season.