Corriero Leads W. Hockey To Weekend Blowout

Led by a three-goal and two-assist effort from junior winger Nicole Corriero, the No. 3 Harvard women’s hockey team steamrolled over Colgate and Cornell to a record 10 straight wins to open the season this weekend.

“You just have to get into the role your team needs you to be in,” Corriero said.

Corriero was right where Harvard (10-0-0, 4-0-0 ECAC) needed her, scoring a goal and registering two assists against Cornell (2-6-1, 0-5-0) on Friday, and following this effort with Saturday’s goals in the Crimson’s victory over Colgate (11-6-1, 4-2-0).

The two conference wins now place Harvard in a three-way tie for first in the ECAC with Dartmouth and St. Lawrence.

Harvard will need to adjust its style of play this week against No. 8 New Hampshire and No. 4 Minnesota-Duluth because neither team will play the defensive hockey that Colgate did.

“We going to open things up more,” Stone said. “We need better, cleaner chances to the net.”

Harvard will end its homestand against Wildcats on Tuesday and then will travel this weekend for a key doubleheader against the Bulldogs.

Harvard 2, Colgate 0

After Harvard’s offensive explosion against Cornell on Friday, Colgate attempted to stymie the Crimson scoring with a defensive trap and by clogging the middle of Harvard’s offensive zone with players.

Although the Raiders kept the scoring low, they still couldn’t stop the Crimson’s offense.

“We wanted to get good movement down low, cycling the puck,” Corriero said. “We tried to get them moving, and to move ourselves.”

Just over one minute into the second period, Colgate goaltender Rebecca Lahar was given a two-minute minor for delaying the game.

Harvard capitalized on the power play a minute later. Co-captain defenseman Angela Ruggiero passed to sophomore forward Julie Chu, who faked a shot and then slid the puck to a cutting Corriero on the opposite side. Corriero one-timed the puck into the back of the net to give Harvard the 1-0 advantage.

Corriero’s struck again on the power play with seven minutes remaining in the game.

Corriero took the puck by herself from the upper right of the face-off circle and brought it into the middle to take a shot. Lehar turned the puck away, but the rebound went right back to Corriero, who had continued towards the net, for the finisher.

“We have spent a lot of time on special teams,” Crimson coach Katey Stone said. “It is much easier to kill a penalty then score a power-play goal. We have been pretty successful.”

Harvard went 2-for-6 on the power play for the day.

After the initial strike, the Raiders couldn’t get past the Crimson’s stifling defense and sophomore goaltender Ali Boe, who turned away all 12 shots sent her way to earn her fourth shutout of the season.

Boe’s value to the team, however, comes from the number of win she has posted, not the number of zeroes.

“It’s about the wins, not the shutouts,” Stone said. “[Boe] did a good job of controlling things in the defensive end, which is particularly impressive with the younger team that we have.”

Throughout the third period, Harvard pressed to increase its lead and secure the victory, putting 18 shots on goal.

Harvard 8, Cornell 3

After a shaky start against Cornell—in which Harvard found itself trailing 3-2 mid-second period—the Crimson answered in dominant fashion, finding the net six times in a row unanswered.

Twelve Harvard players notched points in the game—only Ruggiero scored twice—as the Crimson roared to a come-from-behind rout.

Cornell jumped out to a 3-2 lead at 6:55 in the second period after Pearle Nerenberg collected a rebound and shot it past Harvard goalie Emily Vitt for a power-play goal. It was the first time Harvard had been trailing all year.

“We were not ready to go tonight,” Stone said. “I don’t know why. We just were a little hesitant all over the ice. It was nice to be able to work through that, so we ended on a positive. But we certainly didn’t start on a positive.”

Stone called the Big Red, who jumped out to a surprising early lead, “much improved” from last year.

“In order for us to win games this year, no one’s going to hand us anything,” Stone said. “We’re going to have to earn everything we get.”

The Crimson was 3-4 on the power play, including the first goal of the game, tallied by Corriero.

“On power plays this year we’ve been struggling,” Corriero said. “So it was nice to get a power-play goal off the bat, and kind of inject some life into it.”

Harvard outshot Cornell during the game 46-17, as the Crimson offense blistered Cornell goaltender Flora Vineberg with shot after shot. Beth Baronick relieved Vineberg for the final 15 minutes of the game.

On the other end of the ice, Vitt struggled early but improved as the game moved on.

“It’s hard for a goalie when she’s facing minimal shots,” said Corriero. “I thought that she did make a couple of key saves.”

The win had special significance for sophomore defenseman Jennifer Skinner, who was facing her twin sister Andrea, a sophomore winger for Cornell, for the second straight year.

“I don’t love playing against Andrea but I do love playing Cornell because we get to see each other,” Skinner said. “We played together our entire lives before college and only last year did we play against each other.”

Despite the hockey rivalry that exist between the two schools, there is not an intense sibling rivalry between the Skinners.

“In the end you just play with a little moxie and things take care of themselves,” Skinner said.