Villiotte Valiant In Goal

Prime-Time Players. Go-to Men. Money Performers.

Any successful sports team has to have them--people who rise to the occasion and can carry their team with them.

The Harvard women's hockey team won the Beanpot Championship last night against Northeastern, 3-2. And, heeding the rule, the Crimson's big players carried the team to victory.

There's sophomore A.J. Mleczko, a towering center with a powerful shot. She controlled the play whenever she was on the ice and broke the 1-1 tie with a lightning-quick wrister just inside the post.

And you can't forget junior defender Holly Leitzes, junior forward Stacy Kellogg or A.J.'s sister--co-captain defender Winkie Mleczko. All three played key roles last night.

But above all of these stars was the goaltender, senior Erin Villiotte. In her last game at Bright Hockey Center, Villiotte was tremendous in the net, turning away 28 of 30 Husky shots. Villiotte more than anything was the reason for Harvard's win.

"She couldn't have been better," Harvard coach Katey Stone said. "She was on top of everything and dictated what was going on in her area."

No time was this more evident than in the closing minutes of the game. After the Crimson took a 3-1 lead, the Huskies realized that they had 6:53 to score two goals. And Northeastern--being the good team that it is--responded.

The rest of the game seemed to be a continual power play for the Huskies. Time after time after time the attackers whacked shots at Villiotte, and just as often the Harvard netminder gloved them or swatted them away, save one Northeastern one-timed slap shot.

Villiotte made 16 saves in the final period--more than she made in the first two periods combined. With a lesser woman between the pipes, the Crimson probably would have lost.

In this reporter's modest opinion, if Villiotte hadn't won the Beanpot MVP it would have been a mistake punishable by public flogging.

"I was off and on," Villiotte said. "It was hard to get really into this game--it was so even, no team had a real advantage."

Jeez, Erin, you could have fooled me. If this is what you called "off and on," I'd sure like to see "on". (Of course, the rest of the ECAC wouldn't.)

From Villiotte's first save, it was very evident that it was her game. It wasn't anything special--she made a glove save on an unscreened shot--but she acted so nonchalantly about it. She could have just as easily been sitting on the sofa catching the remote.

The rest of the first period would be more of the same. Northeastern's best scoring chance of the period--and Villiotte's best play of the game--came just after A.J. Mleczko was stuffed point-blank in front of Husky goaltender Kim Flatt. Northeastern, on a power play, immediately got on a breakaway, and it looked like it would be 1-0 to the visitors.

Nope. Save, Villiotte. Get used to it.

Right as the second period began, the Huskies responded to a Crimson goal with one of their own, but that was on yet another breakaway. Come on, the woman is human.

But she shut the door for the rest of the period and again for most of the third, which gave her team time to take the lead back for good.

In short, Villiotte played big when Harvard needed her to play big. She did what she had to do to give her team the W.

That's what I call a star.