Minnesota Teams Freeze Out W. Hockey

The Harvard women’s hockey team welcomed two western powerhouses to the Bright Hockey Center this weekend but came away with two tough losses.

Coming off a heartbreaking 3-2 loss to No.2 Dartmouth last weekend, Harvard (2-3-1, 2-1-1 ECAC) took on No.1 Minnesota-Duluth and No.8 Minnesota and gave both a scare but ended up running out of steam.

On Saturday, Minnesota-Duluth (6-0-1) overwhelmed the Crimson with an impressive display of offensive explosiveness en route to an 8-5 win. Five different Crimson players scored goals, but the defense couldn’t stop the high-powered Bulldogs.

Minnesota (8-2-2) came to town yesterday and scored three goals in the final four minutes to rally for a 3-2 win. The Crimson outplayed the Golden Gophers for most of the game but couldn’t hold a 2-0 lead in the waning moments.

Freshman forward Nicole Corriero had a solid weekend for the Crimson, picking up three goals and an assist in the two games.

Harvard Coach Katey Stone believes the Crimson is better than the two highly-touted Minnesota schools but just couldn’t take advantage of its opportunities.

“They’re two good teams, but we had them,” Stone said. “They’re not that good. We didn’t play well, and we still had them.”

Minnesota 3, Harvard 2

Minnesota freshman phenom Kelly Stephens scored two goals in a span of 90 seconds late in the game, and Gopher left wing Jerilyn Glenn tipped home the game winner with just over a minute remaining as Minnesota stunned the Crimson, 3-2.

The Crimson played a solid game for the first 56 minutes and seemed to be on its way to victory after going into the third period with a 2-0 lead.

But with just under four minutes remaining, Stephens broke in alone down the right side of the ice, skated across the top of the crease and beat Crimson sophomore goaltender Jessica Ruddock to cut the Crimson advantage to 2-1.

A minute and 22 seconds later, Stephens struck again when she took a pass from the behind the net and stuffed it past Ruddock to knot the score at two with 2:45 remaining in the game.

The Crimson had a chance to regain the lead a minute later, but a shot by Corriero trickled just wide of the net, and Minnesota began a counterattack.

At the other end of the ice, Gopher sophomore La Toya Clarke put a shot on net that Glenn tipped in, and the Minnesota comeback was complete.

Harvard managed two good shots on net in the waning seconds but couldn’t beat netminder Brenda Reinen.

Stone was unhappy with the team’s lack of aggressiveness in the final minutes.

“We didn’t have anywhere near the jump we had yesterday,” Stone said. “It’s very disappointed to lose a game like that because your kids started standing around and watching.”

Corriero accounted for both Crimson goals with two great individual efforts. In the final minute of the opening period, the freshman took a pass from junior forward Tracy Catlin at center ice, skated down the left side of the ice and beat Reinen with a wrist shot to put Harvard up 1-0.

Later, in the ninth minute of the third period, Corriero beat two Gopher defenders into the zone and banked a shot off the back of the goalie to give Harvard a two goal lead.

Corriero viewed the heartbreaking loss as a learning experience for the young Crimson team.

“We know now that we can play up with the top teams,” Corriero said after the game. “But we also learned that no matter what the score is, you can’t stop playing until you hear the final buzzer.”

Minnesota-Duluth 8, Harvard 5

Minnesota-Duluth forward Maria Rooth tallied four goals to lead an offensive attack that was too much for the

Crimson, as the top-ranked Bulldogs (6-0-1) defeated Harvard 8-5 in a shootout Saturday.

Five different Crimson players netted goals as Harvard kept the game close well into the third period. With 12 minutes remaining in the game, Corriero pierced the UMD defense and slid a backhand past Bulldog goalie Patricia Sautter to bring the Crimson within one, 6-5.

However, four minutes later, Rooth completed the hat trick when she redirected a slap shot past Crimson senior goalie Alison Kuusisto to make the score 7-5. Rooth then picked up her fourth goal of the afternoon into an empty net in the final minute of the game to round out the scoring.

The first two periods were filled with back-and-forth play as the teams traded goals. The Bulldogs got on the board early as junior Joanne Eustice scored at 2:11 of the first period to give UMD a 1-0 advantage.

But the Crimson answered just 37 seconds later when junior forward Kalen Ingram took advantage of a Bulldog line change to find wide-open senior defenseman Jamie Hagerman, who knotted the score at one.

Duluth scored the next two goals as Rooth and junior forward Hanne Sikio found the net to push the Bulldog advantage to 3-1 just over eight minutes into the game.

Crimson freshman forward Sarah Holbrook scored two minutes later to bring Harvard within one, but the Bulldogs regained a two-goal lead with seven minutes remaining in the first period on a goal by defenseman Tricia Guest.

The Crimson again got within one goal at seven minutes of the second period when Catlin scored, but the Bulldogs responded just six seconds later on a goal by Larissa Luther that gave UMD a 5-3 lead.

Four minutes later, Ingram tipped home a shot from the point by Hagerman on the power play before Rooth took the puck the length of the ice. Rooth found the net to give UMD a 6-4 lead after two periods.

Against UMD Kuusisto made 25 saves in net, and Ingram, Corriero, Hagerman and Van Reesema each picked up two points on offense.

The Crimson, now on a three-game losing skid, returns to action on Friday when it hosts nationally-ranked ECAC opponent Brown at 2 p.m. at the Bright Hockey Center.