No. 5 W. Hockey Beats No. 4 St. Lawrence, Cornell

CANTON, N.Y.--Sometimes, a loss can be just what the doctor ordered.

After dropping a heartbreaker to No.1 Dartmouth a few weeks ago in Hanover, the Harvard women's hockey team swept past Cornell (3-6-0, 3-6-0 ECAC), 3-1, on Saturday, and then conquered No.4 St. Lawrence (7-3-2, 6-1-1 ECAC), 2-1, on Sunday. The victories extended the No.5 Crimson's overall and ECAC winning streak to six games.

In the six games after the loss to the Big Green, Harvard (8-3-0, 8-1-0 ECAC) first crushed Boston College, Princeton and Yale before easily defeating the No.2 team in the nation, Brown. The Big Red was the next victim, and then the Saints, who were previously undefeated in the ECAC and were the only team to not fall to No. 1 Dartmouth. St. Lawrence tied the Big Green, 2-2, a week ago in Hanover.

Harvard 2, St. Lawrence 1

St. Lawrence's spotless league record did little to intimidate the Crimson as it steamrolled over the Saints with a 2-1 victory yesterday afternoon.

"They're not really an undefeated team, nor were we," Harvard Coach Katey Stone said. "We came in to today knowing that they had tied Dartmouth and beaten Brown, and that gave us more incentive."

With both teams matched up pretty evenly, it was Harvard's potent power play unit that made the difference. The Crimson came into Sunday's game with a respectable 17.6 percent success rate, which it only improved upon in the two wins.

"We've got a pretty good power play and a pretty good pair of hands out there," Stone said. "Sooner or later, things are bound to happen and go our way."

St. Lawrence, which had only given up one power-play goal in 39 attempts so far this season, was frustrated by the Crimson's pressure on the man-advantage, as Harvard notched a pair of power-play goals in each of the first two periods of play, including the game-winner.

Senior winger Tammy Shewchuk, in her quest to shatter former teammate A.J. Mleczko's '99 all-time assist record, posted her second assist of the night on the power play. Shewchuk cycled around the net, and sent a sharp pass out to co-captain Angie Francisco on the doorstep. Francisco caught Barrie out of position and batted a one-timer low to the ice to score at 10:14 and put Harvard up 2-0, a margin the Saints could not overcome.

Though Harvard could not capitalize offensively on even play during the first two periods, the Crimson pressured the puck and generated a generous number of quality chances.

As usual, the dangerous duo of Shewchuk and junior co-captain Jennifer Botterill combined for the majority of those chances, and the tally that put Harvard on the board.

Barely 30 seconds into the first power play of the game, Shewchuk cycled the puck low down the left side and looked for an opening. Botterill was loose low in the slot, but was unable to knock the puck past Saints goaltender Rachel Barrie.

The duo made that play succeed on the Crimson's second power play try, lighting the lamp first at 5:44 for a 1-0 lead. Botterill moved down the left side and dished to Shewchuk low in the left face-off circle. Botterill moved to her spot in the slot and slammed one home to put the Crimson up.

St. Lawrence had trouble finishing its chances throughout the game, thanks to an impenetrable Harvard defense and a little over-eagerness.

Early in the game, it appeared the Saints had the edge offensively, as they consistently tested the reflexes of freshman netminder Jessica Ruddock.

Barely two minutes into the game, the Saints' Chera Marshall and Shannon Smith rushed down through the offensive zone. Marshall sent a pass from the right side, but no one was home to take the pass.

And at 6:25, Jessica Wilson and Sara Simard made a move to strike early in a 2-on-1 rush. Wilson started to go for a pass to Simard but changed her mind and went for a wrist shot that went high.

Desperation started to set in for the Saints towards the end of the first stanza, but they still could not put one over the line. At 14:41, Suzanne Fiacco nabbed a rebound from a shot into Ruddock's pads right off the face-off, but was unable to bury the puck.

St. Lawrence's inability to implement its own system throughout the game was only too clear in the second period. Not only were the Saints' shots sloppy and impatient, but they allowed their penalty kill unit to break down and allow the Crimson to notch another tally on the man-advantage.

Harvard maintained the edge in play for most of the third period, as Botterill abused the Saints' defensemen and flew in close for a shot at 5:09. Despite the pressure, Barrie was able to recover and make the save.

Clearly, St. Lawrence's spotless league record was not entirely out of luck. Its scrappiness and determination, coupled with less defensive pressure from the Crimson, showed that the Saints' conference record is not a fluke--it allowed the Saints to erase Ruddock's shutout in the final stanza.

Wilson took a long shot from outside the circle, causing Ruddock to flop around and make the save. The puck dallied on the goal line, but Ruddock was able to nudge it out of the crease with her glove. However, Fiacco was lurking at the crease, and one-timed the rebound to bring the Saints within one.

With Barrie pulled for well over a minute during the final moments of play, St. Lawrence made it interesting, but was unable to capitalize on the barrage of shots it launched against Ruddock. But the rookie netminder held on and brought her team a much-needed victory to keep Harvard in the running for the top slot in the ECAC.

Harvard 3, Cornell 1

The Crimson showed no signs of overlooking its battle with St. Lawrence in its game against Cornell Saturday, easily handling the Big Red, 3-1, at Lynah Rink.

Harvard opened the scoring in the first period and never looked back, carrying a 3-0 lead until the final seconds of the third period and extending its overall and ECAC winning streak to five games, which would become six games after Sunday's win.

The Crimson's game-winning goal came from Botterill. Botterill has been unstoppable during Harvard's streak, scoring two goals in the game to give her 12 goals in the past six games.

With the Crimson holding a 1-0 lead entering the third period, Botterill netted her 11th goal of the season with 13 minutes remaining, beating Big Red goaltender Elizabeth Connelly to give Harvard a 2-0 lead.

Later in the period Botterill added her second goal, assisted by Shewchuk and senior forward Tara Dunn, to make the score 3-0.

The Crimson lost its bid for the shutout when Cornell forward Allyson Simpson scored with 16 seconds left in the game to give Cornell its only goal at 3-1.

Sophomore forward Tracy Catlin, coming off her game-winning goal against Brown, opened the scoring for the Crimson 9:33 into the first period. Catlin benefited from assists by Dunn and Francisco to give Harvard the early lead at1-0.

Crimson junior goaltender Alison Kuusisto, who stopped 17 of 18 shots and nearly shut out the Big Red, recorded the win.

Both teams had plenty of scoring chances, but sputtered on power-play opportunities. Harvard went 0-for-5 with the man advantage, and Cornell fared no better at 0-for-6.

The Crimson does not play again until Dec. 16, when it looks to continue it winning-streak against No. 6 Minnesota-Duluth on the road.