Icewomen Down Eagles in 'Pot, 5-1

Harvard women's hockey team defeated Boston College, 5-1, in the first round of the Women's Beanpot Tournament last night at Bright Arena. The Crimson will face Northeastern in the championship game, to be held next Tuesday.

While the final score made the game appear to be a Crimson cakewalk, the Eagles did not go quietly.

The game was tied at 1-1 late in the second period until Harvard finally broke away from BC.

Before the Tournament, Harvard Coach John Dooley said his team would need "unbelievable goaltending" to win the championship.

But for the bulk of two periods, it was Boston College that had championship goaltending. In fact, the Eagles might have squeezed by the Crimson had it not been for Harvard's front line of senior Sandra Whyte (one goal, three assists), sophomore Joey Alissi (two goals, one assist) and senior Ginny Simonds (one goal).

The game-winning goal came at 14:15 of the second period. Simonds picked up the rebound of a Whyte slapshot and rifled the puck by senior goaltender Kerry Tiernan, giving the Crimson a 2-1 lead.

Up to that point, Harvard rotated through its three forward lines, but Tiernan continued to hold off the Crimson offense. So, Dooley went to his bread-and-butter line.

"Tiernan's been there for four years, and she is excellent," Dooley said. "We were worried, our first line is an outstanding line, but we've got to get some production out of the others."

Although Harvard was able to penetrate BC's middle, Tiernan frustrated Harvard's offense for almost the entire game, diving on loose pucks with reckless abandon, flashing her quick pads, and making shoestring catches.

BC came into the game ready to play and the opening period was fairly even. The Eagles could not put any sustained pressure on the Crimson, but late in the period, freshman Kate Antos and her determined forechecking led to an offensive flurry against goalie Alexander Shear.

Early in the second, Harvard finally put one between the pipes. Whyte made a pin-point pass to Alissi who charged towards the crease. The sophomore sniper deflected the puck by Tiernan to put Harvard up, 1-0.

BC came right back at the Crimson, and tied the game at 8:15 of the second period. Tracey Labossiere received a clearing pass from Lisa Tullimiere and broke in all alone. She fired a wrist shot past Shear's weak side.

The Crimson responded to the Eagles' goal by peppering Tiernan with shots for the next several minutes.

The BC netminder made several phenomenal saves, until Simonds' goal finally broke through.

Harvard's second line chipped in a goal early in the third period, to cement Harvard's victory. Kim Landry pumped in a Jen Minkus rebound to boost the score to 4-1.

Joey Alissi added a top corner tally, midway through the third to round out Harvard's scoring.

"BC was the best we've seen them tonight, they really gave us a game," Dooley said. "They are for real."

"For a 13-3 team, its hard to believe their best effort has ended in a loss, but the 5-1 score is not really indicative of the game." Harvard assistant coach Paul Melvin said.

Despite the loss, BC's spirits were high after the game.

"They have a little more depth than us, but we tried to capitalize," BC Coach Tom O'Malley said. "Everyone from Kerry on out did their job."

NOTEBOOK: Northeastern defeated Boston University, 4-0, in the late game last night to advance to the tournament final.