Flurry of Shots Yields W. Hockey Win, Tie

One way to break out of a scoring slump is to shoot your way out of it. So when a 44-shot night produced one lone goal in a 1-1 tie against Princeton Friday night, the Harvard women’s hockey team responded the next day with a similar 49-shot flurry, resulting in an 11-2 stomping of Yale Saturday afternoon at Bright Hockey Center.

The Crimson didn’t change its strategy due to Friday night’s tie against the Tigers, when Princeton netminder Roxanne Gaudiel posted 43 saves.

“There wasn’t anything we did wrong,” Crimson tri-captain Kat Sweet said. “We worked hard the entire game. [Gaudiel] just played outstanding.”

With the blow-out of Yale, Harvard avenged a 3-2 loss to the Bulldogs earlier this season.

The weekend’s games leave the Crimson (11-6-2, 10-1-1 ECACHL) in sole possession of second place in the standings. After starting 2005 with a 4-0-1 streak, Harvard is only three points behind division leader Dartmouth. The Crimson will have a chance to chip away at that lead when it faces off against the Big Green in Hanover, N.H., this coming Saturday.

“We’re not content right now,” tri-captain Julie Chu said. “Dartmouth has a lot of talent on their team, but we have a great team as well. We just gotta get down and dirty.”

HARVARD 11, YALE 2

One good goal deserves another.

That was the Crimson’s motto Saturday afternoon as it pounded six goals in the third period to rout the Bulldogs (10-11-1, 8-4-1) 11-2—avenging its only ECACHL loss of the season.

Back in November, Harvard—minus the services of Chu and freshman forward Sarah Vaillancourt, who were playing in the Four Nation’s Cup—had lost to Yale for the first time since 1984. But memories of that game only added fuel to the Crimson’s offensive surge.

“We knew we were going to win this game,” Sweet said. “We had such good momentum going into it.”

The differences in the two games reflected the differences between the two halves of Harvard’s season. The loss to the Bulldogs came in 2004, which the Crimson ended on a 1-5 skid. Saturday’s win against Yale came in 2005—a year that has yet to see Harvard be defeated.

“At the end of 2004, we decided as a team to work basically twice as hard as we had in the first half of the season,” Sweet said. “Our attitude is better.”

This renewed commitment was especially evident in the second period. After trailing 2-1 at the end of the first period, Harvard scored four goals in a span of 3:43 to establish a solid 5-2 lead. Vaillancourt scored the second of the four goals—and the Crimson’s first power play goal of the night—on a cross-ice feed from sophomore defender Caitlin Cahow. The extra-skater tally at 15:04 would prove to be the game-winner for Harvard.

“Up to that point, it had been gritty play,” Chu said. “We finally got some calls [from the referees], and we wanted to make sure we took advantage of them fully.”

The key to the Crimson’s success was special teams. In addition to a perfect night on the penalty kill, Harvard was 5-of-11 on the power play. The strategy of using Chu in front of the net to block Bulldogs’ goalie Sarah Love’s vision enabled several low shots from the point to find the back of the net.

“The way [Yale’s] system is, they don’t force hard along the boards,” Chu said. “They were giving our points a chance to shoot, and we just fired away.”

While the Crimson got production from its usual offensive threats—Vaillancourt notched six points, league-leading scorer and tri-captain Nicole Corriero had two goals and Chu recorded two assists—the youth stepped up as well. In addition to Cahow’s five points, sophomore forwards Jennifer Sifers and Katie Johnston had two goals each, and freshman defender Jessica Mackenzie scored the first goal of her collegiate career.

“That was one of the best things about tonight,” Sweet said. “The scoring was spread out. And it’s always great when a freshman scores her first goal.”

HARVARD 1, PRINCETON 1

Despite solid efforts on both offense and defense, Harvard came away with only one point for the standings with a 1-1 tie against the Tigers (11-5-4, 5-4-2) on Friday night.

Though the Crimson held a 44-13 edge in shots, the furious offensive attack was unable to find the back of the net more than once. Gaudiel posted 11 saves in the third period and eight in overtime to stop Harvard’s win streak at three games.

Rather than playing a man-to-man defense, the Tigers crammed in five skaters around the net to block or deflect as many shots as possible. The tight wall made it difficult for Harvard’s shooters to get good angles—and if the puck did somehow make it to net, the red-hot Gaudiel was there to stop it.

“[Princeton] just packed it right in front of the net,” Chu said. “We had some opportunities, but we didn’t put them away. Their goalie made some big saves.”

On the other end of the ice, junior netminder Ali Boe and the Crimson defense held their own, too. In addition to limiting the Tigers to only 13 shots, Harvard clamped down when shorthanded.

“Our D-zone has been much crisper,” Sweet said. “We’re not letting the other team take as many easy shots.”

The lone Princeton goal came on a shot by Tigers forward Sarah Butsch. Boe initially stopped the puck, but its momentum carried it over the line for a Princeton goal at 13:16 of the first period.

But the Crimson continued to pepper the Princeton net with shots, forcing 16 saves out of Gaudiel in the second period.

Senior defender Ashley Banfield finally got one past the Tigers at 16:03 of the second period. Chu, receiving a feed from Cahow, sent a quick pass from the point to the right post, where Banfield one-timed it before Gaudiel could react.

Though Harvard outplayed Princeton for the remainder of the game, the Crimson would get no more than the equalizer.

“We totally dominated [the Tigers],” Sweet said. “You give us another minute and we would have scored on them. But you just have to bounce back the next day.”

—Staff writer Karan Lodha can be reached at klodha@fas.harvard.edu