No. 2 W. Hockey Battles Northeastern, Providence

It may be shopping period for most Harvard students, but there will be no down time for the No. 1 Harvard women's hockey team.

The Crimson returns to conference play with games against two upper-division teams, No. 6 Northeastern and No. 8 Providence, at 2 p.m. tomorrow and Sunday at Bright Hockey Center.

"These are big games and the kids are ready for both of them," Harvard Coach Katey Stone said. "They're looking forward to playing coming out

of exams. We're going to have to scratch and claw this weekend to stay at

the top of the polls."

Harvard (13-2-2, 11-2-2 ECAC) fell to second place during exam period as former No. 2 Brown (12-2-3, 11-1-3) gained a one-point lead over the idle Crimson. Harvard is in a tie for second with No. 6 Dartmouth (13-7-0, 12-4-0) while Northeastern (16-6-0, 11-4-0) is tied for fourth and Providence (15-5-3, 9-4-3) is one point behind the Huskies.

Harvard will have its entire roster available to play this weekend, although

junior winger Tammy Shewchuk and sophomore defenseman Angela Ruggiero have not practiced at Bright this week.

The festivities for Sunday's NHL All-Star Game in Toronto features a

Canada vs. U.S.A. women's game, which will take place today at the Air

Canada Centre, and Shewchuk will play for Canada while Ruggiero is wearing

the stars and stripes. Both players will return to Cambridge tomorrow

morning in time for the Northeastern game.

Both of the Crimson's opponents this weekend have formidable defenses. Providence goaltender Sara DeCosta, a gold medalist on the 1998 U.S. Olympic Team, and the Friars allow only 1.39 goals a game, the lowest average in the ECAC, whereas Northeastern's aggressive defense gives up 1.73 goals a game, ranking the Huskies third in the conference.

"We usually dominate offensively, but against Northeastern and Providence goals are harder to come by," freshman winger Kalen Ingram said. "The score will be close but we have confidence in our offense. Goals will come, but we need to take care of our own end first."

The Crimson beat the Huskies 5-3 in January at Matthews Arena in Boston, the site of this year's AWCHA national championship tournament March 24 and 25. Ruggiero (11 goals, 18 assists) and the top forward line of

Shewchuk (21 g, 19 a), sophomore center Jen Botterill (15 g, 17 a) and

junior winger Angie Francisco (14 g, 26 a) combined for all five goals.

Northeastern, who was ranked No. 1 heading into that meeting, is in its

worst slump of the season. The Huskies rode an eight-game winning streak

into the new year, but it racked up a disappointing 2-3-1 record in January, including a 4-3 upset loss at home to 10th-place Cornell last weekend.

Northeastern goaltender Erika Silva,

who had the lowest goals-against average in the conference in December,

allowed 3.33 goals a game last month.

"Against Northeastern it's important to make sure we shoot a lot on their goalie," said freshman defenseman Jamie Hagerman, the ECAC's top rookie scorer from the blueline. "We scored four goals on her last time and other teams have been able to beat her since then. We just need to get the puck in deep and run our offense from there."

On the other end of the ice, Northeastern will look to captain Hilary Witt (19 g, 17 a), a perennial nominee for the Kazmaier Award for national

player of the year, for offensive firepower. The Crimson held Witt to two assists and no goals in January and the Huskies, who were never able to establish possession in the Harvard zone, relied on shots in transition to stay in the game.

"Everything started in the defensive zone when we beat Northeastern last

time," Hagerman said. "We need to contain their forwards and win the

little battles on defense and in the neutral zone."

On Sunday the Crimson will attempt to baffle DeCosta, who is second in the conference in both GAA (1.32) and save percentage (.950). When Harvard played at Providence last month, DeCosta singlehandedly kept the Friars in the game, stopping 45 shots--seven of them in overtime--to force the 1-1 tie.

"Against Providence we need to attack on rebounds," Ingram said. "DeCosta is a great goalie but she's not as strong on rebounds, so we need to

capitalize on all the second chances we can get."

The Friars will need another great performance from DeCosta to challenge the Crimson on Sunday. Providence's leading scorer is Kim Mathias (9 g, 12 a), who plays up front and at the blueline and is tied for 25th in the conference in scoring.

Harvard will counter with its vaunted top line and plenty of help from Hagerman and Ruggiero, who leads all ECAC defensemen in scoring. The Crimson will also need production from the second line of junior center

Kiirsten Suurkask (5 g, 10 a), junior winger Tara Dunn (5 g, 7 a) and

Ingram (3 g, 4 a).

In spite of Harvard's offensive firepower this season, the Friars and Huskies may try to take advantage of the Crimson's long break because the Crimson has not played a game in three weeks.

In its first game after intersession last year, Harvard gave up six goals--the most it allowed all season--before beating Northeastern in overtime to advance to the Beanpot championship game. With nine conference games left in the regular season, the Crimson begins the home stretch against two difficult defenses.

"We know we need to be up for every game, no matter who it is or how long it's been since the last game," Hagerman said. "These last eight weeks are where we show ourselves and the league how hard we've been working for the last six months. It's up to us to be mentally ready this weekend."