Ingram, ECAC Stars Play National Team

Junior winger Kalen Ingram was Harvard’s lone representative among the 18-player ECAC Northern Division All-Star Team that fell to the U.S. Women’s National Team by a score of 7-1 at Cornell’s Lynah Rink on Sunday.

For Ingram, the main attraction of the event was playing against future Harvard forward Julie Chu ’06, who has defered admission for a year and defenseman Angela Ruggiero ’02-’04, who has taken off the past two years from Harvard to play with the national team.

“I didn’t have any high expectations,” Ingram said. “I just wanted to go and meet the other players and play against Angela Ruggiero and Julie Chu and have fun, and I did.”

Harvard captain Jaime Hagerman, who was one of 44 players invited to try for the U.S. National Team during the summer, was also selected to play for the ECAC North All-Stars, but she chose not to make the trip to Ithaca.

After 10 minutes of Sunday’s game, the All-Stars suprisingly led the U.S. 1-0 on an unassisted goal from Brown’s Kristy Zamora.

It was one of few occasions where the Americans have trailed during their 10-0 pre-Olympic tour thus far. Even the Canadian National Team failed to acquire a lead in the teams’ two-game series during the previous week.

But the U.S. National Team’s superior talent came through before the end of the period as forward Katie King scored twice and forward Cammi Granato—the eventual game MVP—added another to give the U.S. a 3-1 lead before the first intermission.

“It was pretty fun to sit on the bench and be there close and see how fast [the U.S. players] were and how good they are with their hands,” Ingram said.

The Americans scored four more times in the second to put the game away. The first U.S. goal of the period was assisted by Ruggiero, ever an offensive threat from the blue line. She had a goal and an assist in the Americans’ 4-1 win over Canada on Oct. 20

“I think she’s the top defenseman on the team for sure, and from talking to her, she thinks she’s really improved,” Ingram said.

Vermont goaltender Tiffany Hayes stopped 20 of 26 shots for the All-Stars before getting pulled at the game’s halfway mark for St. Lawrence sophomore Rachel Barrie.

For the rest of the afternoon, Barrie—a Canadian U-22 National Team goaltender—limited the Americans to just one goal on 24 shots. She earned ECAC Player of the Game honors for her efforts.

Two other St. Lawrence players who led the Saints to a national championship appearance last year, juniors Shannon Smith and Amanada Sargeant, were Ingram’s linemates on Sunday.

The U.S. outshot the All-Stars 50-6 overall. The 7-1 final score was a much better result than that of the ECAC East All-Stars, who fell 16-0 to the U.S. on Oct. 14.

More importantly, no one on the North squad got hurt. The Eastern All-Stars wasn’t as lucky, as Niagara’s Brooke Bradburn—her team’s leading scorer in 2000-01—sustained a high-ankle sprain off a face-off on Oct. 14 which knocked her out of action for at least six weeks.

The timing for the two ECAC All-Star Games was tough for some teams to manage, as all college hockey teams outside of the Ivies have already started their seasons. Even the Oct. 14 game was a conflict for Providence players who started their season against Minnesota-Duluth that same weekend.

“It’s not something you want to take away from a kid, but on the same token the timing’s very difficult,” said Harvard Coach Katey Stone.

The Crimson, who defeated the Toronto Jr. Aeros 6-2 in an exhibition on Friday night, will begin its season on Nov. 3 at Colgate. The home opener is Nov. 9 against Vermont.