W. Hockey to Play Huskies in Beanpot

For the entire season, the Harvard's women's hockey team has twinged under an unfair media label of being a "rebuilding" team with little expected of them.

Tonight, the Crimson has the chance to shake off that label as they take on the Northeastern Huskies in the Beanpot final.

On paper, the Crimson's (6-15-0 overall, 2-14-0 ECAC) chances of taking the Beanpot appear slim. The Huskies (15-6-0), a perennial ECAC title contender, have defeated Harvard twice this season in heavily physical matches.

However, in a sport as unpredictable as hockey and cross-town bragging rights at stake, statistics quickly prove useless.

"We know we can beat [Northeastern] as long as each person is out there giving it their all, both physically and mentally," senior Christa Calagione said.

For Harvard, most of that problem has been physical rather than mental. With 15 skaters on the team, the Crimson has been able to field at most three lines in the course of a game. In contrast, larger programs (such as Northeastern) post between four and five full lines. Fewer skaters means a shallower bench and significantly more ice time for each player.

"When your are only playing three defenders, you don't have enough legs and it gets extremely exhausting for the players," Calagione said.

A prime example of that occurred in Sunday's game against Providence.

Though the Crimson held tight throughout the game, fatigue became the deciding factor. Rested Providence skaters came alive in the third period and outskated their exhausted Crimson counterparts to victory. The prospects of growing tired in the third period will weigh especially heavy on the Crimson if tonight's game is as physical and penalty-laden as the past two were against Northeastern.

"We are going to need to play a tight man-to-man defense in the zone if we want to stay strong and win against Northeastern," senior captain Colleen Malek said.

In addition to tight defense, the Crimson has spent the week working on creating shot opportunities, especially in power play opportunities.

"Our red line is really coming together on schedule and getting us some goals when we need them," Malek said.

Beyond cross-town bragging rights, tonight's Beanpot final could well be a turning point in the Crimson's season. Northeastern has emerged as one of the Crimson's biggest (and best) rivals this season. A victory would provide significant momentum going into two challenging weekend ECAC contests at Cornell and Saint Lawrence and the ECAC tournament just three weeks away.

"This is a huge game for us and will help determine the attitude of the team for the next three weeks leading up to the tournament," Malek said.

No less important, an upset victory against Northeastern might finally allow the Crimson to shake the "rebuilding" label from their backs.