W. Hockey To Battle Big Green

With the ECAC regular season championship and Ivy League crown in the bag, the No. 1 Harvard women's hockey team will skate to Providence this weekend looking to add the conference title to an already impressive 1998-99 resume.

Top-seeded Harvard will take on sixth-seeded Dartmouth tomorrow at Brown's Meehan Auditorium in the ECAC semifinals at 4 p.m. The winner will play either second-seeded UNH (21-5-5, 19-4-3 ECAC) or fourth-seed Northeastern (25-6-3, 18-4-4) in the conference championship game on Sunday.

The Crimson (29-1-0, 24-1-1 ECAC) enters tomorrow with a 26 game winning streak and an automatic bid to the AWCHA National Championship Tournament at the University of Minnesota on March 26 and 27. Meanwhile, Dartmouth (16-8-5, 14-7-5), advanced to the semifinals by surprising third-seed Brown 3-0 last Friday and probably needs to upset the Crimson to have a chance at a national championship bid.

But the Brown game was no fluke. In the month the Big Green has held it own against the other three teams that made the conference semifinals. Dartmouth upset UNH 4-3 on Feb. 21, tied Northeastern 0-0 on Feb. 28 and took Harvard to overtime Feb. 27 before falling to the Crimson 4-3.

"We didn't play our best against Dartmouth, and we'd like to make this a payback game," said junior defenseman Courtney Smith. "We need to come out flying and let Dartmouth know we're the No. 1 team in the country."

Harvard will finally be at full strength for the first time since a 6-0 shutout over Princeton Jan. 10. Junior goaltender Crystal Springer was still recovering from a broken collarbone Feb. 27 but returned to the ice the following weekend. Springer has a 1.44 GAA and a .930 save percentage, both good for third in the ECAC.

Harvard will also welcome the return of freshman sensations Jen Botterill (32 g, 41 a) and Angela Ruggiero (18, 33). After that Dartmouth game, the two highest-scoring rookies in the nation left the team for the World Championships in Finland. Botterill's Canadian National Team edged out Ruggiero and the U.S. National Team, 3-1, in the championship game last Sunday.

Botterill and Ruggiero flew back to Cambridge Monday night and have been practicing with the team since Wednesday.

"I'm excited to be back the team," Botterill said. "It's playoff time, and we know that all the teams will be up for these games. We'll have to work hard but we are feeling confident."

The Big Green contain the nation's highest scoring offense-averaging 6.47 goals per game-with an aggressive 1-3-1 forecheck.

Led by freshman Corrence Bredin (8, 24), the second-highest scoring rookie defenseman in the country behind Ruggiero, Dartmouth kept the puck away from Harvard's fast-skating forwards and never let the Crimson clear the defensive zone and attack the Big Green net. After Harvard out-shot Dartmouth 14-4 in the first period, the Big Green held the Crimson to 16 shots for the rest of the game and managed 13 shots of its own.

One way Harvard will try to solve the 1-3-1 forecheck will be to take pressure off the forwards and let the defensemen clear the defensive zone themselves. And Harvard's defensemen are comfortable with the puck. Ruggiero frequently leads the breakaway herself, and Smith and co-captain Claudia Asano have both played forward in the past.

"We need to move the puck quickly out of the zone," Smith said. "We need to move out quickly and not stop behind the net to set up. They like to pack the wings so the defensemen will just skate out themselves and let the forwards swing high and break open."

Once the Crimson clears the defensive zone, its offense can go to work on Dartmouth sophomore goaltender Meaghan Cahill, who is seventh in the conference with a 2.18 GAA and eight with a .910 save percentage.

Leading the Harvard offense will be co-captain A.J. Mleczko (32, 72), the nation's leading scorer and one of three finalists for the Kazmaier Award for player of the year. Mleczko can handle the puck at the blue line and in the seam and has plenty of options on the wings in linemates Botterill and sophomore Tammy Shewchuk (46, 46) who leads the country in goal scoring. That line contains the three highest scorers in the nation.

"Breaking out of the defensive zone is the key," Botterill said. "If we can do that, our skaters can move quickly and we should have a lot of options. Our whole team is pretty creative in the offensive zone, and we should be in good shape if we can improve on the breakouts."

The presence of Botterill and Ruggiero also gives Harvard more depth. Sophomore Tara Dunn (18, 15), who replaced Botterill as a first line winger, will center the third line and can join classmates Angie Francisco (11, 31) and Kiirsten Suurkask (11, 15) on the second line if the Big Green can keep the score close in the third period.

To do that, Dartmouth will have to keep the score down. A defenseman-Bredin-is the second-leading scorer on the team, and no Big Green skater is among the top 20 scorers in the ECAC. Senior center Kathleen O'Keefe (9, 24) is tied for 28th in the conference, and she will look to sophomore forwards Jennifer Wiehn (16, 12) and Carrie Sekela (14, 13) to finish off her passes.

Should Harvard get by Dartmouth, it will have its hands full with UNH or Northeastern. The Crimson defeated the Wildcats, 3-2 and 4-2, but trailed in the third period in both games. Harvard embarrassed Northeastern 6-1 in December but the Huskiness took the Crimson to overtime in the Beanpot in a wild 7-6 shootout.