Despite Loss, W. Hockey Clings to No. 1 Ranking

For once, the biggest games in women's hockey from Thanksgiving through this weekend are not in the ECAC. In fact, these games aren't even happening in this country.

Instead, many of the world's greatest women's hockey players have gathered in Montreal for the Three Nations Cup between the national teams from Finland, Canada and the U.S.

Among the players in Montreal are Harvard junior winger Tammy Shewchuk and sophomore center Jen Botterill, the top two scorers in the ECAC. Shewchuk and Botterill are the only two collegiate players on Team Canada.

The only collegiate player on Team Finland is forward Hanne Sikio of No. 8 Minnesota-Duluth (10-0-0, 10-0-0 WCHA), the second-leading scorer in Division I. Sikio will miss UMD's two-game series this weekend at No. 5 Minnesota (10-3-0, 7-0-0 WCHA), the Bulldogs' first ranked opponent of the season.

Team U.S.A. Coach Ben Smith '68 did not bring his collegiate players to Montreal. A.J. Mleczko '99 and her teammates are spending the season in residence at Lake Placid, gearing up for 2002. That means sophomore defenseman Angela Ruggiero of Harvard, goaltender Sara DeCosta of Providence, defenseman Tara Mounsey of Brown and center Jenny Schmidgall of UMD are not missing their college games.

UMD was off over Thanksgiving, but the Bulldogs will miss Sikio when they take on Minnesota this weekend.

The other team that lost players to the Three Nations Cup was Harvard--and the Crimson has already been hit hard. Harvard (6-2-0, 4-2-0 ECAC) lost at No. 7 St. Lawrence last Saturday, 4-2, despite pouring 46 shots on goal. The Crimson will have its hands full this weekend, especially when it hosts Princeton Sunday at 2 p.m. at Bright Hockey Center.

But Harvard remained No. 1 when the national poll came out last night. That was because New Hampshire fell at Northeastern on Sunday, 2-1. The Huskies (9-2-1, 6-2-1) replaced the Wildcats (6-2-0, 4-2-0) in the No. 2 spot in the new poll. With Dartmouth idle last weekend, the Huskies also moved into first place in the ECAC.

The shift in the rankings sets up an interesting match-up this Saturday, when Northeastern travels to St. Lawrence. Both teams are flying high after upsetting Harvard and UNH, which have won the sport's first two national championships.

Northeastern has a three-point lead over four teams--No. 4 Brown, No. 6 Dartmouth, Providence and Niagara.

Brown (6-2-0, 5-1-0) has come on strong since Mounsey returned from the field hockey team, which she led to the Ivy League title en route to winning the Ivy Player of the Year award.

Brown has already benefited in its first season as Harvard's travel partner. The Bears beat both Dartmouth and St. Lawrence the nights after those two teams stunned the Crimson.

Dartmouth (5-2-0, 5-2-0) is taking as long as possible to let its Thanksgiving turkey digest. The Big Green has not played since last Tuesday, and its next game is Dec. 11 at Minnesota. Dartmouth will not resume ECAC action until Jan. 5 at Boston College, which will allow everyone else to build up a substantial lead over the Big Green in the conference standings.

Providence (6-4-0, 5-3-0) is the only team in the conference that has beaten Northeastern, its travel partner. DeCosta and the Friars lost to UNH last Saturday, and they will play at Cornell and St. Lawrence this weekend.

Niagara (9-1-1, 5-1-0) is in second place because of its easy schedule thus far. The Purple Eagles have beaten up on Maine and Boston College, and they split a two-game series at Cornell. But things will be much more difficult for Niagara, the only ECAC team without a travel partner. The Eagles host UNH this weekend and then travel to Cambridge for two games at Harvard.

The Crimson is in a three-way tie for fifth place with UNH and St. Lawrence. The Wildcats should glide to two wins at Niagara this weekend, but winning won't be as easy for the Crimson and the Saints. Harvard hosts Yale and Princeton, while St. Lawrence (9-2-0, 4-2-0) hosts a pair of upper-division teams in Providence and Northeastern.

Princeton (4-3-2, 3-3-1), all alone in ninth place, still remains a question mark at this point. The Tigers tied Northeastern, but then they lost close games to Providence, UNH and St. Lawrence.

Led by sophomore forward Andrea Kilbourne and a pair of sisters in junior defenseman Annamarie Holmes and freshman winger Nikola Holmes, the Tigers have plenty of offensive firepower. But until sophomore Susan Maes or freshman Sarah Ahlquist shows some consistency between the pipes, Princeton will continue to lose to ranked teams.

The ECAC's top nine teams all have winning conference records because the bottom of the pack has been struggling. Cornell (3-5-0, 3-5-0) is in 10th place and has an outside shot at a playoff berth. But the Big Red has two tough games this weekend against Northeastern and Providence.

Maine (1-8-0, 1-7-0) is in 11th place only because the Black Bears have been fortunate enough to play--and beat--Yale. Maine will tune up with a game against Division III Bowdoin tonight before another tough game against UNH on Saturday.

Tied for last place are Boston College (1-9-0, 0-9-0) and Yale (1-8-0, 0-7-0). Stay tuned for a Jan. 9 match-up at New Haven, when the Elis host the Golden Eagles. This battle of the winless could be extremely ugly.