No. 9 Harvard Topples No.7 St. Lawrence In Easy 4-0 Rout to Take Over First in ECAC

Between the hype, the stakes, and the caliber of the teams involved, Friday night’s game had all the right ingredients for another classic battle between the No. 9 Harvard women’s hockey team and No. 7 St. Lawrence.

But in the end, it was just another night, another conference win for the Crimson.

An early offensive outburst and a dominant defensive showing gave Harvard an easy 4-0 victory over the Saints at Bright Hockey Center in the first game of the final weekend of the regular season.



“Our kids had a lot of jump and they were certainly ready to go,” Crimson coach Katey Stone said. “They wanted to dictate play right from the beginning and they did.”

The rout was an unexpected one. Harvard entered the game one point behind St. Lawrence for first place in the ECAC standings, and the Saints had dealt the Crimson a 3-1 loss earlier in the season.

But Harvard came out of the locker room fired up, striking early and often, and before St. Lawrence could compose itself, the first period had ended and the Crimson held a 3-0 advantage.

“We’ve been coming out strong in a lot of our games,” sophomore forward Kate Buesser said. “It really sets the tone.”

Harvard tri-captain Sarah Vaillancourt—riding a torrid streak in which she had factored into 19 of her team’s previous 23 goals—opened up the scoring for the Crimson with a goal 3:28 into the game.

Vaillancourt took a pass from junior Anna McDonald following a faceoff and drove down the left side of the ice. After eluding a pair of Saints defenders, Vaillancourt approached the net, holding onto the puck and patiently waiting for St. Lawrence goalie Brittony Chartier to make a move. Chartier took the bait, lunging and leaving her right side wide open.

Vaillancourt slipped the puck into the vacant part of the net to give Harvard a 1-0 lead.

Just under seven minutes later, Vaillancourt lit the lamp again, this time flying solo.

After stealing the puck and racing into the Saints’ zone, the senior winger positioned herself in front of the net, with a defender and Chartier impeding the path to her 23rd goal of the season. With the direct route blocked, Vaillancourt took a detour, flicking a shot around the defender and over Chartier’s shoulder to deliver the puck to its final destination.

“[Vaillancourt] had a lot of energy,” Stone said. “She’ll find a way to get open, and I think people pushed the puck very well today so it allows for that to happen…She’s a dynamic player.”

With Harvard’s leading scorer setting the tone, Buesser followed suit.

Not to be outdone on this night, the sophomore contributed a pair of goals of her own.

With less than five minutes left in the first period, McDonald won the faceoff and got the puck to senior Sarah Wilson, who launched a shot that bounced off Chartier. Buesser put the rebound back in the net to make it a 3-0 game.

Midway through the second frame, Buesser’s number was called again.

Receiving the puck from sophomore defenseman Ashley Wheeler, McDonald took the puck to the right circle and found an open Buesser at the far post.

Buesser sent home another one to score the Crimson’s final goal of the night. McDonald’s assist was her third on the game and Wheeler picked up her first career point.

“I think today’s game was the definition of team,” Buesser said. “Everyone was on their game.”

But while Harvard’s aggressive offensive assault was the story of the game, its defense provided a compelling subplot.

St. Lawrence mustered 22 shots on the night—just one shy of the Crimson’s 23—but Harvard controlled the tempo of the game from start to finish.

Even during the copious amount of time the Crimson spent a man down—the team logged 23 penalty minutes—Harvard seemed to always be on the offensive.

And when the Saints finally seemed on the verge of creating a legitimate scoring opportunity, junior Christina Kessler—the Crimson’s stalwart goaltender—was there to rebuff any St. Lawrence advances, notching her fourth shutout of the season.

“It starts with the defensive end,” Buesser said. “We feel like our team has enough offensive talent that the offense will come. We just focus on defense.”

With Harvard’s priorities in place, the team cruised through the rest of the game to take a 4-0 win and first place in the ECAC.

—Staff writer Loren Amor can be reached at lamor@fas.harvard.edu.