W. Hockey Given No Chance at Title

Disbelief. Denial. Those are bad words, not because they're vulgar but simply because they both start with a big, bad, green "D," serving as constant reminders of the green-clad skaters from New Hampshire who beat the Harvard women's hockey team all three times they played in 1999-2000.

Disbelief and denial are also the words that describe the state of the Harvard players immediately after the ECAC semifinal, which ended 14:33 into overtime when Dartmouth's Kristina Guarino scored from outside the right circle. That gave the Big Green a 3-2 victory over the Crimson and, ultimately, ensured Dartmouth a berth in the American Women's College Hockey Association (AWCHA) National Championships, ending Harvard's hopes of defending its 1998-99 title.

It was disbelief because it didn't seem possible that the Crimson could lose that game. Harvard trailed 2-0 heading into the third period, and Big Green netminder Amy Ferguson made 25 saves in the first 40 minutes. But the Crimson came back, getting on the board with goals from wingers Tammy Shewchuk and Kalen Ingram to tie the game with less than seven seconds in regulation. Harvard appeared to be the hot team going into the extra period.

"There were stages of the game that we totally dominated," said sophomore center Jen Botterill. "We had so many chances and some great opportunities; they just didn't go in. But our whole team kept believing for the whole game, and that's why it was disappointing in overtime--because none of us doubted that we would win."

The denial came after the game, when Harvard refused to believe its season was over.

"Scoring the goal at the buzzer and going into the locker room before overtime, we thought we had overcome the worst possible scenario," said sophomore defenseman Angela Ruggiero. "When they scored in overtime, it was like your heart stopped, but in the back of our head we thought we were going to go to Nationals."

So did many women's hockey fans. Harvard (21-5-3, 17-4-3 ECAC) had been ranked No. 1, 2 or 3 in the national polls almost every week of the season. The Crimson was the defending champ and had beaten the other teams that had the top ranking (Northeastern and Brown) as well as the team that eventually won the national championship (Minnesota).

But the selection committee chose Dartmouth (21-12-0, 17-7-0), which had a worse record but the distinction of three victories over Harvard, two of them in overtime and one of them in the conference semifinals. The Big Green turned in a decent performance at the AWCHA tournament, losing to top-seeded Brown, 4-2, before beating No. 2 seed Minnesota-Duluth in the consolation game, 5-4.

The loss to Dartmouth abruptly ended a season that would be respectable for most teams, but was disappointing for a team that began the year as the consensus favorite to repeat as national champs. The 1998-99 Crimson won the Beanpot, the ECAC regular-season title, the conference tournament championship and the national championship.

"It's one thing to get to No. 1, but it's another thing to stay there," Botterill said. "You do everything you can not to let the pressure affect your performance, but it's a lot tougher when every team is out to get you and is playing its toughest. We learned a lot this season."

The first sign that things would be different came Nov. 12 against Dartmouth when A.J. Mleczko '97-'99 and Claudia Asano '99, the team's former co-captains, came to Bright Hockey Center to unveil the national championship banner. Dartmouth led the entire game until junior Angie Francisco got the equalizer midway through the third period and it looked like the Crimson, who won every overtime game in 1998-99, had things under control. But Jen Wiehn scored the game-winner for Dartmouth to upset the Crimson in its home opener.

Dartmouth was the prototypical ECAC team in 1999-2000--young, talented and playing over its head. With teams like Dartmouth, St. Lawrence and Niagara providing more competition, Harvard found itself unable to win every game as it had the year before, even in overtime.

"You could notice the change in competition from the beginning of the season," Ruggiero said. "Every team improved, and they just played a lot harder. This was the best year of women's college hockey the league has ever seen."

But Harvard, which had to make up for the losses of Mleczko, the 1999 national Player of the Year, and Asano by incorporating freshmen like winger Kalen Ingram and defenseman Jamie Hagerman into its regular rotation, improved as the season wore on as well. In December, the Crimson blew out Princeton, 7-1, by scoring four goals in 81 seconds. And in February, Harvard won the Beanpot for the second straight year by defeating Northeastern in overtime, 4-3.

And for the second straight year in a row, it was Botterill who scored the game-winner. Botterill, who was out with an injury 10 days earlier when the Huskies tied the Crimson at Bright, found an opening in the slot and sent the puck top-shelf past Northeastern netminder Erika Silva, who stood on her head with 32 saves.

"There's nothing harder than just watching the game from the stands because you don't have control of the outcome anymore," Botterill said of her injury. "I did my best to encourage the team, but it was not fun at all. When you're away from it, you always want to make an impact when you come back, and that was a motivational factor in the Beanpot."

The Beanpot goal was one of many highlights for Botterill (31 goals, 31 assists), the ECAC Player of the Year. Playing with Shewchuk (34 g, 40 a), the conference's leading scorer, and Ingram (11 g, 19 a), a member of the ECAC All-Rookie Team, the Crimson had the highest-scoring top line in the conference for the second straight year. And Botterill believes her line can play even better next year.

"We had a team meeting at the end of the year where we regrouped and got excited about next season," Botterill said. "Once you establish yourself, everybody goes after you, and we're going to be ready for that next year. We are going to be on a mission."

All three top-liners and many other talented players will be back for that mission. Leading the pack are Ruggiero (21 g, 33 a), the country's highest-scoring defenseman; Francisco (14 g, 36 a), a vital piece of the power-play unit who will serve as tri-captain with Ruggiero and Botterill; and Hagerman (4 g, 11 a), who joined Ingram on the ECAC All-Rookie Team.

"We're excited to have the base of the team back for next year, though we'll miss Crystal Springer in goal and a lot of locker room leadership from the seniors," Ruggiero said.

Springer, who posted a 15-1 record during the 1998-99 championship run, had a .910 save percentage and a 2.13 goals-against average this past season in going 11-2-3.

"When we faced adversity last year we always came out on top," Ruggero added. "This year, we faced adversity, but sometimes we didn't win. So now we have the taste of victory but we also know that we can't take anything for granted."