Postseason Awards Soften W. Hockey's NCAA Loss

In a display of how evenly matched Harvard and Minnesota were in their title game showdown, the Crimson garnered three of the six spots on the all-tournament team. Harvard earned the respect of the media voters in its noble Frozen Four effort, as winger Sarah Vaillancourt, defenseman Caitlin Cahow, and goalie Ali Boe all nabbed honors for their play over the Frozen Four weekend.

Vaillancourt totaled four goals and two assists in the two games, including a career-defining hat trick in the semifinal win over St. Lawrence. She joined Frozen Four MVP Natalie Darwitz and Krissy Wendell of the Golden Gophers on the squad at the forward position.

Cahow provided Harvard’s final game-tying goal in the final and three helpers March 25 to win herself one of the two defenseman berths alongside Minnesota’s Lyndsay Wall.

Boe nailed down the last spot with her performance in net, making 36 saves over the course of two games on 41 shots faced. She held the Saints to a single score in the semifinals while shutting them out over the last 39-plus minutes of the contest. In falling to Minnesota, she nevertheless held the Gophers below their season scoring average and twice fell prey to turnovers by her defense in the zone.

ALL-AMERICAN BAND

Senior Nicole Corriero and junior Julie Chu were each selected to the CCM All-America Second Team in balloting released at the Frozen Four.

The two tri-captains excelled at the forward position all year long but could not crack the first team, with those positions going to the three Patty Kazmaier Award finalists.

Corriero ended the year with a collegiate-record 59 goals, shattering the previous mark for scores in a season of 51. She led the nation in power-play goals (24), game-winning goals (11), and finished third in points per game (2.53).

Chu, for her part, wound up with 69 points on 13 goals and 56 assists. She ranked second nationally in assists per game (1.70), third in assists, and seventh in points per game (2.09).

Both stars are familiar with the All-America Second Team, with Corriero qualifying in 2002 and 2004, and Chu making the list in 2003.

The voting showed something of a western bias: Chu, Corriero, and Dartmouth forward Katie Weatherston were the lone representatives of the ECAC, which sent three of the four teams to the Frozen Four.

CONSOLATION PRIZE

St. Lawrence blew past a listless Dartmouth team 5-1 in the third-place game at the Frozen Four March 27. The consolation contest, held prior to the final featuring Harvard, pitted the semifinal losers and ECAC rivals against each other in their fourth meeting of the year.

The Saints got their revenge for a loss in the semifinals of the conference tournament and a season home-and-home split with their bitter foes.

“It’s a situation where you have two teams coming off of disappointing losses on Friday and the taste still in your mouth from losing,” St. Lawrence coach Paul Flanagan said. “You get a sense that it’s a consolation game, but it’s still a game in the spirit of the tournament.”

Senior Rebecca Russell sprung for a hat trick in her final collegiate game and freshman Meaghan Guckian provided 25 saves in net, propelling the Saints past a Dartmouth squad that seemed sluggish in its last outing of the year.

“This isn’t the way we wanted to go out and finish the season off,” Big Green senior Meagan Walton said. “But we as seniors need to reflect on the season and what we did accomplish this year as a team.”

Russell took part in all five of her team’s goals, assisting on the game-winner from Kim Kodatsky late in the first period and setting up Sabrina Harbec on the power play halfway through the third.

After Gillian Apps trimmed the lead to 2-1 with a breakaway goal with one-tenth of a second left in the middle frame, St. Lawrence reeled off three straight man-advantage tallies to bury Dartmouth in the closing 20 minutes.

Each team lacked one of its offensive stars for the game, with the Big Green’s Cherie Piper and the Saints’ Chelsea Grills both sitting out due to injury.

St. Lawrence finishes the year 28-8-5 and Dartmouth ends with a 27-8-0 record.

SWEDISH FISH

Although the season ended for the majority of the Harvard team March 27, two members will continue playing hockey through the end of this week. Trading in their Crimson sweaters for the threads of their national teams, Chu and Vaillancourt will compete for the United States and Canada, respectively, in the IIHF World Championships held from April 2-9 in Sweden.

Chu will joined on the American squad by Harvard assistant coach Jamie Hagerman ’03 and legendary alum Angela Ruggiero ’02-’04.

This trio will join forces with a group of Gophers who recently downed the Crimson in the NCAA title game, converted into allies in international play. The top Minnesota line of Krissy Wendell, Natalie Darwitz, and Kelly Stephens will all don the red, white, and blue, and Chu—in her role as defender—will team up on the blue line with Lyndsay Wall.

Vaillancourt will have as her teammate Harvard great Jennifer Botterill ’02-’03.

The tournament features eight of the top teams on the globe and runs through Saturday.

The United States and Canada began round-robin play Saturday, but the two nations will not meet until the finals, if they both qualify. That very same scenario, however, has unfolded in each of the last eight championships, with the Canadians prevailing on all of those occasions.

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