Crimson Seeks Spot in Finals

After sweeping St. Lawrence last weekend in the ECAC quarterfinals, the Harvard women’s ice hockey team will square off against Dartmouth tonight at Bright Hockey Center for a chance to advance to the championship match.

The Crimson (17-10-4, 14-5-3 ECAC) comes into the game having won three of its last four games, but the Big Green (21-10-0, 15-7-0) is streaking too, having won seven of its last eight.

“They are playing well. We are playing well,” Harvard coach Katey Stone said. “It should be a great game.”

This match is important for both teams, because it gives them a chance to compete for the ECAC championship and the accompanying automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, which both teams likely need to make the tournament.

The Crimson and Dartmouth are also huge hockey rivals, and they have faced each other 76 times. Harvard trails the Big Green with a 35-39-2 head-to-head record during those games.

The Crimson won both of the teams’ previous matchups this season, but since that time, both teams have made significant changes and improvements.

“It’s hard [for us] to use those games because we played them back in November,” Harvard tri-captain Kate Buesser said. “You just always know it’s a big rivalry. Beating them three times will be tough.”

The match features two of the highest scoring teams in the ECAC, so a defensive push might prove to be the deciding factor.

The Crimson will look to keep up its recent offensive success, having tallied 24 goals in the last four games. Harvard’s offensive attack has been led this season by Buesser and sophomore forward Jillian Dempsey who have recorded 15 goals and 14 goals, respectively.

In the quarterfinal matches, both forwards played well as Buesser recorded 3 goals and 2 assists while Dempsey notched 4 goals of her own.

Dartmouth’s offense has been paced by junior forward Kelly Foley and sophomore forward Camille Dumais, two of the top ten scorers in the conference.

Both teams will be featuring ECAC All-League selections, which were announced on Monday. For the Crimson, Dempsey and sophomore forward Josephine Pucci were named to the second team while tri-captains Liza Ryabkina and Leanna Coskren were named to the third team. Freshman defenseman Marissa Gedman was also named to the all-rookie team. For the Big Green, Foley and sophomore defenseman Sasha Nanji earned second and third-team honors, respectively.

Playing at home will be beneficial to the Crimson as it has posted an 8-3-1 record at Bright.

Harvard will look to jump on top early; the team has posted a record of 13-1-0 when scoring first and a 4-9-4 mark when it falls behind early.

“We want to come out fast in the first period…and take away the team’s momentum,” Buesser said.“It’s worked well in the first two games.”

The Crimson was penalized 17 times in the two quarterfinal games and seven times in its regular season finale, so it will be looking to reduce the number of penalties.

“These games should be decided 5-on-5, but we’re still going to be ready with our power play and penalty kill,” Stone said.

Even with the number of penalties that Harvard has recorded, it has only given up three power play goals in the last three games. This could be important, as Dartmouth has the second-best power play in the conference.

In practice this week, the team has focused on battling against the mobile defensemen of the Big Green and polishing up its game.

“We have been working on our neutral zone forecheck to run them out of time and space and force turnovers,” Buesser said.

The winner will either play Cornell or Quinnipiac who face off on Thursday night in Ithaca. The loser will be eliminated, most likely without an NCAA tournament berth.

“We just need to play our game and be ready to go,” Stone said. “At the end of the day, it is all about executing.”