Harvard Women’s Hockey Survives First Round of ECAC Tournament, Downs St. Lawrence in Overtime

Despite St. Lawrence taking an early lead to start the game, Harvard women’s hockey beat the Saints in overtime on Friday night, earning the team a spot in the quarterfinal round of the ECAC tournament, where it will face No. 10 Princeton on the road.

After taking down Union College to earn the final home playoff slot in the ECAC tournament, Harvard (15-13-3, 8-11,3) took on the St. Lawrence Saints (11-21-3, 8-13-1) to begin its run for its ninth ECAC Championship. Competition has been tight between the two teams this season, with Harvard taking the first win of the matchup in November, while St. Lawrence took a shootout win in the most recent game just last month.

The first period opened with several off-target passes and missed shots on both sides of the ice as the two teams looked to shake off the nerves of an elimination game. While it was Harvard freshman forward Morgan McGathey who opened up with the first shot of the competition, it was the Saints who found their skates first, pressuring the Crimson’s breakout and testing sophomore goalie Ainsley Tuffy with quick odd-man rushes down the ice.

Nevertheless, Harvard stayed strong on defense, getting in front of pucks and breaking up rushes to keep the game even. However, St. Lawrence eventually broke through, getting a shot through traffic in front of the net to get the puck past Tuffy, taking an early 1-0 lead.

While Harvard struggled to generate momentum in its offensive zone, a power play as Lucia was checked into the boards opened up the door for the Crimson. Taking advantage of the extra player, Harvard cycled the puck around the zone, finding the backdoor pass open to get shots on net. This time, it was the Crimson who found the back of the net, as sophomore forward Ella Lucia got a shot off from the slot off a great pass from junior forward Gwyn Lapp.

With the score tied and a spot in the ECAC quarterfinal game on the line, competition remained tight between both teams going into the second period. Harvard continued to find chances, with junior defensemen Kaley MacDonald just missing a backdoor sauce pass from Lapp.

A hooking penalty from junior forward Angelica Megdanis halfway through the period provided the Saints with another chance to score, but Harvard’s defense prevailed on the penalty kill. With offensive momentum on its side, though, St. Lawrence snuck the puck past Tuffy again, getting a shot off from the circle through traffic to take the 2-1 lead.

Down a goal with just twenty minutes left, the Crimson came into the third period fired up as Lucia took another early penalty for checking. Hoping to extend their lead further, the Saints once again challenged Tuffy, moving the puck from low to high and crowding the front of the net. The nation’s leading goalie, however, kept the score close.

Once again successful on the kill, Harvard ramped up its offensive pressure. The Crimson then faced a couple of scary moments, Tuffy made a huge save on a breakaway, and the team survived another penalty kill. However, Harvard eventually broke through yet again. It was Megdanis who came up big with the goal, firing a shot from the dot after sophomore forward Annie Dinges won a battle on the boards to push the puck to her teammate.

Despite both teams fighting hard to come out ahead, neither could score as regular time came to a close, forcing the game into overtime. From the jump, the Crimson looked to be in control of the extra period, as freshman forward Elle Sproule combined with McGathey to shoot right off the faceoff. After the rookies’ initial surge, it didn’t take much longer for Harvard to end the game, as MacDonald fired a shot from the circle and the puck deflected high above the goalie before blooping into the net.

With its overtime victory, Harvard advances to the quarterfinal round of the ECAC tournament to face off againstPrinceton. The win today marks Head Coach Laura Bellamy ’13’s first postseason victory and a major success for a Harvard team that has been rebuilding over the past couple of years.

“Yeah, it’s a long time coming for our program. I think it’s been a while since we’ve won in the opening round, and that’s what we expect to do,” Bellamy said. “This is a rebuild. We’ve taken huge steps forward this year, as we expected, and obviously, we hadn’t hosted in a bit. And when you host, you want to protect your house.”

“I felt like we did that, and just so awesome to get the overtime win there and keep playing hockey,” the coach added.

The Crimson will keep fighting to make it to Lake Placid, N.Y., but first must face off against the No. 10 Tigers on the road in a best-of-three series starting Friday, Feb. 27, at 3:00 p.m. EST.

— Staff writer Sofia Zhang can be reached at [email protected].