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Icewomen Fly By Eagles, 11-0

Neilson and Simmons Hat Trick for Crimson

By Mark Brazaitis, Special to The Crimson

CHESTNUT HILL--The Harvard women's hockey team enjoyed a post-Thanksgiving feast of cold Eagle last night, devouring an outmatched Boston College squad, 11-0, before 20 disgruntled spectators at McHugh Forum.

The Eagles (1-2) might have beaten the boys peewee team that practiced on the Forum ice an hour before yesterday's contest. But they could not handle the powerful Crimson (2-2).

Harvard, coming off a disappointing 3-1 loss to Princeton Saturday and a 3-2 overtime defeat to Brown earlier in the season, wasted no time against its crosstown rival.

With four minutes gone in the game, Harvard wing Johanna Neilson took a pretty pass from Lisa Bailliere on the right side of the B.C. net.

Nielson stopped the puck and feathered it past Eagle goalie Sue Hughey.

"The game was fun," Neilson said. "It was good for us especially because we had two hard games before."

Bailliere got her own chance to score three minutes later on a slapshot from five feet.

But the B.C. netminder--who recorded an astounding 70 saves on the evening--blocked the shot. Hughey didn't clear it, however, and Balliere followed with a second blast that found the back of the twines.

Harvard continued its first period rampage with Christine Burns' rocket from 20 feet that headed straight for the B.C. goal.

Hughey--apparently giving up on her stick--attempted to nest over the sliding puck. But it wormed under her legs and into the cage.

The Crimson finished off the first half scoring at 12:55 when Nina Simonds took a pass near the Harvard blue line and shot a bullet through the heart of the Eagle defense and past an unsuspecting Hughey.

Crimson goalie Jennifer White--who was averaging 30 saves a game coming into last night's contest--had to stop only one B.C. shot before being pulled for second-string netminder Rebecca Margulies in the second period.

While it will be set down in the record books as a shutout for the two goalies, the game really belonged to the offense, particularly to Neilson and Co-Captain Genie Simmons who both recorded hat tricks.

For Crimson Coach John Dooley, it was a time to test out some players who hadn't seen much action in Harvard's three previous games.

"We're still trying to find the right chemistry," Dooley said. "We're young and we're still learning."

Some players also saw yesterday's contest as a testing ground--and as an opportunity for bench warmers to see action.

"This win was good for our third line," said Crimson wing Karen Carney. "And for our second goalie."

Margulies, a freshman from New Hartford, N.Y., recorded two more saves than her classmate. She quelled the only serious B.C. threat when she turned back a slapshot with three minutes left in the game.

Boston College, however, is not the caliber of Brown or even some of the other Ivy League opponents the Crimson will face this year. And Dooley knows that in order to climb from the second place finish of last year to the top, his young team will have to become more polished.

"By February we'll have something that resembles a hockey team," Dooley said.

The icewomen face their next test Saturday in Burlington, Vt. against UVM.

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