W. Hockey Shuts Down Clarkson on Road

In the first of a pair of weekend road games against teams with nicknames reminiscent of the Middle Ages, No. 6 Harvard went medieval on conference foe Clarkson.

The Crimson (18-6-2, 15-1-1 ECAC) vanquished the Golden Knights (11-14-6, 5-11-1) in Potsdam, N.Y. on Friday, employing a balanced scoring attack and airtight defense to ride to an easy 5-0 victory.

Junior tri-captain Julie Chu led the way with a customary two-way effort, scoring two goals and adding an assist while anchoring the Harvard defense and special teams from the point. Along the way, Chu put the finishing touches on the squad’s slew of four goals in the second period. Clarkson netminder Kira McDonald turned away the initial offering from senior defenseman Ashley Banfield, but Chu swept in, kicked the rebound to herself and beat McDonald high for the insurance tally.

Chu capped off the scoring skating four-on-four in the third period, notching her tenth goal of the season and her 200th career point. The two scores were part of recent goal binge for Chu, who has tallied seven in her last eight games after starting the season slowly in that category.

“In the beginning of the season I was not producing,” Chu said. “I was getting assists but I wanted to put the puck away. I have been just putting the puck in the net more and shooting [it]more.”

And in doing so, Chu—a defenseman on the U.S. Olympic team—has not lapsed in her responsibilities on the other corners of the ice.

“She has been a great defensive player all year and is now starting to step up her offense without losing anything on defense,” Banfield said. “She gets everyone really excited because she is playing so well right now.”

Banfield got the Crimson on the board just 2:28 into the middle period, capitalizing on the first Golden Knights penalty of the game to notch her career-high seventh goal of the year. After McDonald rebuffed shots from Corriero and Vaillancourt, Banfield—now the second-highest-scoring defenseman in the nation—seized upon the rebound and buried it for the eventual game-winner.

The Harvard power play, which ranks third in the nation and has accounted for 36 percent of the team’s goals on the season, was afforded few chances by the clean and cagey Clarkson defensive corps. Limited to only two man-advantage opportunities on the evening, none of which came in the quiet first period, the Crimson had to adapt and find ways to score at even strength.

“They are a pretty clean team,” Banfield said. “They tried to skate with us and didn’t haul us down as most other teams do. It took us a period to figure out but by the second period we knew.”

Banfield’s power-play strike was the first of three goals in a span of four minutes. Senior tri-captain Nicole Corriero extended the lead to 2-0 and her nation-leading goal total to 46 with a strike at 5:02. Then came a third-line tally with sophomore Katie Johnston putting away a feed from junior Jennifer Raimondi.

The second-period burst came on the heels of a sluggish opening frame, in which Harvard outshot the Golden Knights 10-2 but came away empty-handed. The slow start is becoming a troubling trend for the Crimson.

“It has just been a common theme and one that we are trying to address right now,” Chu said. “We just need to be more ready to go when the puck drops.”

Harvard sealed the win in the choppy third period, with junior goalie Ali Boe seeing increased action, picking up seven of her 13 saves on the night. The shutout was Boe’s fifth of the year and served notice to upcoming opponents about the strength of play from the Crimson’s keepers.

“We have been getting a lot of criticism in the past for our goaltending,” Banfield said. “We are showing people now that we have some top goalies in the country.”

—Staff writer Jonathan Lehman can be reached at jlehman@fas.harvard.edu.