Women's Hockey Falls to Dartmouth Once Again

PROVIDENCE, R.I.--The Harvard women's hockey team had its chances against Dartmouth in Saturday night's ECAC Semifinal. With a victory the Crimson could have vindicated its two regular season losses to the Big Green and effectively assured itself of one of the four spots in the national tournament.

A dramatic game-tying goal with 6.5 seconds left in regulation gave Harvard one final opportunity. But Big Green winger Kristina Guarino beat senior goalie Crystal Springer five-hole at 14:33 of overtime, finishing an astonishing three-game sweep of the Crimson (21-5-3, 17-4-3 ECAC) by Dartmouth (20-10-0, 17-7-0) for the season--winning 3-2.

Freshman winger Kalen Ingram had hit a slapshot from senior defender Christie MacKinnon into the upper corner of the net in the waning moments of regulation to tie the game, 2-2, but it would go for naught.

Now Harvard must wait until tomorrow to find out whether it will receive one of the two at-large bids for this weekend's AWCHA Tournament.

In overtime, Dartmouth won a faceoff right outside of the Harvard blueline and the puck found its way to Guarino, who skated ahead into the Crimson zone. With the Harvard defense closing fast on her, she sent a hurried shot past Springer.

"We definitely had the momentum and a lot of really good chances in overtime," junior Tammy Shewchuk said. "But it was just a matter of the puck not bouncing our way."

It was a tough ending for Springer. She had stopped shots many times more dangerous throughout the day than the last one she let through.

Her poise in net kept Dartmouth from adding to its lead during regulation. In the second period, she stopped successive barrages of shots. Dartmouth was unable to generate any kind of sustained offense in the third, but the Big Green still had a few breakaways. Springer stopped them all.

The most spectacular save came with just under six minutes left in regulation. Dartmouth winger Carly Haggard, the ECAC Rookie of the Year, broke in all alone down the right side of the ice. She curved in and tried to beat Springer five-hole, but she fell back and stopped the puck short of the goal line.

The save allowed the Crimson to continue with its comeback which began 4:31 into the third period.

Taking a pass from Botterill, Shewchuk rushed into the Big Green zone, and did the rest of the work herself. She skated around two defenders--faking one of them to the ground--and then wristed the puck past Dartmouth freshman goalie Amy Ferguson.

"The third period we played a good brand of Harvard hockey," Shewchuk said. "My goal was a result of good forechecking. The girl in front of me happened to slide, and I just took a shot and saw the opening."

After the Shewchuk goal, the Crimson came to life and dominated the rest of the third period. Harvard rarely allowing the puck to leave the Dartmouth end, ultimately outshooting the Big Green 8-6.

"Even when we were down 2-0 we kept coming back," Harvard Coach Katey Stone said. "I'm so proud of the way we played. We blanketed them in the third period and a large part of the overtime."

With 40 seconds left, the Crimson set up a face-off in the neutral zone and called timeout to get its top line into the game. When the puck was finally dropped, the Crimson attack rolled over the Dartmouth defense.

"We encountered the same situation last year against UNH," sophomore defender Angela Ruggerio said. "We pulled it off last year. There was such a positive effort in the locker room. We had no doubt we were going to score."

As the Crimson piled on the pressure, the Big Green received one good chance to clear the puck, but ECAC Player of the Year, sophomore center Jen Botterill retrieved the puck and it worked up to MacKinnon at the point, who fired a slapshot.

Ingram, the Crimson extra attacker, fought madly through two defenders for the rebound, and sent the puck into the side of the net.

With the clock winding down, the puck bounced to Shewchuk. She sent the puck back to MacKinnon for a second blast. This time Ingram, parked in front of the net, directed the puck into the upper corner, where Ferguson didn't have a chance.

"It's always controlled chaos," Stone said. "We pulled the goaltender and had Kalen pop out there. I was most impressed with Chrstie MacKinnon. A senior, very poised, she rips two shots, and bang, the freshman puts it in."

In overtime, despite being outshot 9-2, Harvard had more good scoring opportunities. Most of them were the direct result of Ruggerio.

With 13:34 left, Ruggerio was left alone on the blue line. She wound up and fired the hardest shot of the night into the high corner. But Ferguson's glove was right there, and the game went on.

Then five minutes later, Ruggerio drew two defenders at Dartmouth blue line and sent a backhand pass to Ingram skating towards the net all alone. But Ferguson stepped up and forced Ingram's backhand wide.

The Big Green made it clear from the very beginning that it would not allow any easy goals. In the first period, Harvard was on the power play for eight minutes. The Crimson dominated, outshooting Dartmouth 16-7. But the Crimson could never get its shots by Ferguson.

"We moved the puck extremely well on our power play," Ruggerio said. "We dominated on our power play."

Harvard frequently misfired while trying to redirect shots in the opening minutes. Too often the Crimson deflections flew in completely unpredictable, unproductive directions.

"We definitely had a lot of chances," Shewchuk said. "I hit a post once. It was just a matter of capitalizing on the chances that we got."

Ferguson and the Dartmouth defense played the game nearly mistake-free. The same could not be said for Harvard. Both of the Big Green's first two goals could have been prevented.

An errant Harvard pass from behind its own goal left the puck sitting in front of the net close to three Dartmouth players. Springer tried to push the puck away, but Big Green center Kristin King managed to fire a shot by Springer as she was moving back into the net at 12:11 of the first period.

The second goal came on a Dartmouth power play at 4:03 of the second period. Defender Liz Macri took a slapshot from the point, but the rebound bounced to unmarked junior Carrie Sekela down low who had plenty of time to convert the easy chance.

"You got to give Dartmouth credit," Shewchuk said. "They definitely worked for what they got. They're one of those teams that just gives us problems."

But it was Harvard's game to lose. The Big Green defense made the Crimson earn its two goals. The three Dartmouth goals, on the other hand, owed more to Harvard mistakes than anything else. These mistakes are what killed Harvard's hopes of defending its ECAC title.

Tomorrow it will find out if they also killed Harvard's hopes of defending its national title.