Big Green Freezes Icewomen, 4-1; Second Period Does in Crimson

HANOVER, NH--Somewhere along the road from Cambridge, the temperature dropped 20 degrees and the sunshine turned to snow.

The Harvard women's hockey team got locked in the deep freeze, failing to Dartmouth, 4-1, in its last Ivy League contest of the year.

The icewomen closed out their Ivy season with a 5-5 record, probably good enough for a third-place finish behind Brown and Princeton.

It was not, however, a typical road loss, characterized by a slow start and shaky "bus legs."

Instead, it was Dartmouth that opened the game as though it had just finished a two-hour bus ride.

"We've never done that before," Harvard Coach John Dooley said. "We came right off the bus and took the game to them."

The Crimson outshot the Big Green, 11-4 in the first period and converted on a power-play opportunity to jump to a quick lead.

And then, only then, did the deep freeze set in for one crucial and deadly period.

"We got lazy in the second period, and it killed us," Dooley said.

"The story of this game is really the story of the last two or three Ivy games," Crimson goalie Tracy Kimmel noted. "They've been decided in one period."

And because of the 20-minute lapse, Harvard had to head back to balmy, Cambridge with its third consecutive Ivy loss.

The game opened with the kind of chance that doesn't come along too often in women's hockey, as two members of the Big Green drew penalties within 30 seconds of each other.

Despite being up two players, however, the Cantabs couldn't maneuver into position to work one by Dartmouth goalie Kristen Bjork.

The next time around, however, when Big Green Co-Captain Estey Ticknor was whislted for tripping, Harvard made good.

Crimson forward Genie Simmons drove the puck through crowd of green shirts to make the score 1-0 after 13 minutes of play.

The lead held into the second period, when Dartmouth finally woke up just as Harvard fell asleep.

First, at 5-36, Karin Clough scored a power-play goal in retaliation, sliding a hard shot along the ice past Kimmel from the blue line.

Just a minute later, Carol Lewis received the puck from Sudie Naimi inches in from of the net. The senior co-captain shuffled to the left, shuffled to the right, and then stood still and knocked it in for her squad's second goal.

The third Dartmouth goal came at 14:16, when Lewis looped around behind the net, came up on the right and shuck the puck past Kimmel.

One period, three goals, and there went the game for Harvard.

"We were too slow in reacting in our own end, and they nibbled away and beat us," Dooley said. "In the third period the kids came back and fought like hell--we had a couple of golden chances that we just couldn't finish off."

Dooley, usually not given to much experimentation, decided to load up on offense in the final stanza.

He moved freshman Julie Sasner, a defenseman, up to the forward line to skate with Simmons and kelly Landry. On the other line be teamed Dinny Starr, Liz Ward, and Karen Carney.

"I wanted to generate more of fense, take advantage of their second line," Dooley said. "If we could have netted one, we could have gotten the momentum we needed."

The conversion of Sasner, who leads the squad with 22 goals, seemed like a gamble worth taking, despite the risk of overtiring the remaining three blueliners, Jane Kalinski, Christine Burns, and Amy Hartung.

With less than two minutes left in the contest, Dooley called a time-out and pulled out all the stops to try to generate some offensive pressure.

Sixty seconds later, when the Crimson skated back onto the ice, goalie Kimmel stayed behind.

"At that point we just had to get a goal in a hurry," Dooley said.

Unfortunately, the strategy failed, and set up the strangest goal of the season.

The Crimson six skated up the ice, determined to put a shot past Bjork.

Harvard's first shot, however, was blocked and cleared by Dartmouth's left defenseman, 9 Sanders.

The puck eluded all of the Harvard players and leisurely glided down the length of the ice, depositing itself in the empty net.

"I was just clearing it," Sanders said.

"If the was aiming for the net, she would have missed," Big Green Coach Chuck Metz added.

And on that freaky note, the game, and Harvard's Ivy season, closed.

For seniors Kimmel, Starr, Landry, Ward, and Katrinka Leschey, this was the last chance to pursue the Crimson's first-ever Ivy League crown.

For the rest of the squad however, including this year's outstanding crop of freshmen, next season looks promising.

"I hope that next year we take all of the wonderful talent that we've got and show everyone how good we are," Kimmel said. "It's too-bad I can't be there to see it."

First Period--I.H. Genie Simmons (Johanna Neilson, Karen Carney) 14:35. Penalties--9 Sanders, D. (checking) 6:51; Karin Clough, D.(tripping) 7:23, Estey Ticknor, D. (tripping) 13:34.

Second Period--2, D. Clough (Ticknor, Sam Chivers) 5:36. 3, D. Carol Lewis (Sudie Naimi Anne Desmond) 6:57. 4, D. Lewis (unassisted) 14:16. Penalties-Janc Kalinski, H. (tripping) 4:17.

Third Period--5, D. Sanders (unassisted) 18:46.

Saves--H. Tracy Kimmel, 4-6-4-14; D. Kristen Bjork, 10-4-9-23.

Atendance--50, including one dog. Big Green, 4-1 at Hanover, N.H. Harvard  1  0  0  -1 Dartmouth  0  3  1  -4