ECAC Playoffs Begin This Weekend

The Harvard women's hockey team knew they needed to sweep both games last weekend to have a chance at the ECAC league title. They also needed Dartmouth to falter in one of its two games.

Both the Crimson and the Big Green were dominant, however, and Dartmouth claimed the league crown by a mere one point.

But the most important games have yet to be played. An ECAC title is a nice accomplishment, but an NCAA title would be even better.

No. 4 Harvard (21-8-0, 20-4-0 ECAC) begins its quest to recapture the national championship it earned in the 1999 season with an ECAC quarterfinal game this weekend. Harvard needs to perform well in the ECAC tournament in order to secure a high seed in the NCAA tournament.

"We're right where we want to be right now," said Coach Katey Stone. "We're proud of how we finished [in the ECAC regular season] and now we have to focus on one game at a time."

The first test for Harvard will be tomorrow at 2 p.m. against No. 10 Providence. The Crimson beat the Friars (18-13-3, 10-11-3) just 3-2 on February 24 on the road..

Saturday's contest will be in the friendly confines of Bright Hockey Arena, where the Crimson has lost just three games all season.

There was no surprise in who led the Crimson scoring in the last meeting between the two teams. Junior co-captain Jen Botterill, the league's all-around scoring leader, scored two goals and assisted on the other to lead the Crimson over the Friars.

Harvard got on the board early in that game when Botterill scored on a power play goal just over six minutes into the first period.

Senior forward Tammy Shewchuk gave Harvard a 2-0 lead when she tallied a goal near the end of the same period.

Botterill then scored at just over the six-minute mark of the second period to give the Crimson a seemingly comfortable 3-0 lead. But Providence would score just before the end of the period, and despite their 3-1 lead, the Crimson was being outshot 24-22.

It was the third period when things got interesting. Providence would score just three minutes in and Harvard's lead was cut to one. Then the game got a little ugly.

In a span of under five minutes, Providence committed four penalties, including slashing, roughing and a game misconduct. The Friars had a total of ten penalties that gave Harvard 28 minutes of power play opportunity.

"We know we need to keep our heads up agaisnt Providence," said senior forward Kiirsten Suurkask.

The Crimson was only able to convert on one of these opportunities however, and despite outshooting the Friars 17-4 in the third period, Harvard was unable to extend its 3-2 lead.

"We're working on sharpening up our special teams and focusing on playing sound defense," Stone said.

In their January meeting at Bright, Harvard prevailed, 7-4.

Fresh in their minds however will be how physical the game ended just two weeks ago.

"Hopefully the officials will do their job and we can take care of business," Stone said.

A win would put Harvard into the semifinals of the ECAC playoffs against another quarterfinal winner. If the top seeds prevail, then the Crimson's semifinal opponent will be No. 5 St. Lawrence, who split with Harvard during the regular season.

The ECAC semifinals and championship game will be hosted by Dartmouth the following weekend.