W. Hockey Splits Weekend, Corriero Tallies Three

After over three weeks of inactivity, the Harvard women’s hockey team got off to a slow start at No. 10 Princeton, ultimately losing 4-3 in overtime on Friday night.

The No. 9 Crimson started slowly against Yale as well, but exploded in the third period for four goals, earning a 7-2 victory on Saturday. After the weekend split, Harvard’s record stands at 9-7-1, 4-2-1 in the ECAC North, good enough for fifth place.

Harvard 7, Yale 2

Against Yale (5-9-1, 2-5-0), Harvard faced a lesser opponent who played up to its opposition.

Harvard took an early lead as senior third-line forward Vanessa Bazzocchi netted her first goal of the season. Freshmen forward Ali Crum sent the puck from behind the net to Bazzocchi, who one-timed it in.

Yale responded five minutes later when junior forward Rory Neuner put the puck past senior goaltender Alison Kuusisto to tie the game at one. Kuusisto was screened and couldn’t see the shot from Neuner, who was free in front of the net.

Kuusisto started again over injured sophomore Jessica Ruddock, who is listed as day-to-day with a hip injury.

Harvard regained the lead early in the second period, thanks to freshman winger Nicole Corriero and junior center Kalen Ingram. The Corriero-from-Ingram combination tallied for the tenth time this year at the 6:36 mark on the power play. The score extended Corriero’s goal-scoring streak to nine games. It was also Ingram’s 100th career point, a milestone for the Harvard junior.

Five minutes later, the duo would strike again, this time with Ingram scoring the goal and Corriero getting the assist. Ingram picked up a Corriero rebound, patiently hesitated and then shelfed the puck above Yale goaltender Katie Hirte.

The Bulldogs cut the lead to one when senior forward Sara Wood scored on a breakaway at 14:16 of the second, but that would be the last Yale goal of the evening. To that point, Yale had been kept in the game by Hirte, who would finish with 39 saves.

“She was standing on her head,” Corriero said.

In the third period, Harvard’s finally broke the game open.

“They were begging for the red line, dumping the puck in the zone all the time,” Kuusisto said. “They couldn’t deal with our pressure.”

Harvard outshot Yale 19-8 in the third period and 46-20 overall.

Freshmen sensation Corriero took the puck in on her own and deked by a defender before putting it in the goal for her nation-leading 21st of the season at 4:06 in the third. Bazzocchi and Ingram assisted the play.

In the period’s 14th minute, junior forward Tracy Catlin received a pass from Hagerman in the neutral zone and broke in on the right side. She then sent a pass across the offensive zone to incoming freshmen forward Kat Sweet on the left. Sweet made the most of her opportunity, scoring her second goal of the season.

Ingram added her second of the game, once again from Corriero, at 16:56.

Sophomore speedster Mina Pell added the seventh and final goal with only 17 seconds remaining, scoring from a scramble in front of the net. It was the first goal of the season for Pell, who had numerous opportunities and now seems entrenched on the team’s number one line along with Corriero and Ingram.

Ingram was credited with her third assist of the game. She is now tied for the national lead in that category with 21. She leads the nation in assists per game and she is third in the nation in points per game.

“We really picked it up in the third period in both games,” Catlin said.

Harvard can relax a bit in its upcoming exhibition game, at home on Jan. 27 against the Conneticut Polar Bears, the former team of U.S. Olympian Angela Ruggiero ’02-’04.

The Crimson needs the intensity that showed late in this weekend’s games for its next regular season matches, however, to be played at home on Feb. 6 and 7 against Cornell and Colgate.

Princeton 4, Harvard 3, (OT)

Fresh off a stunning 3-1 upset of Dartmouth and a 5-1 shellacking of Vermont the previous weekend, the upstart Tigers (10-5-2, 3-2-0 ECAC North) came out strong in the first period. They opened the scoring at 3:25 of the first when sophomore forward Lisa Rasmussen found the puck in a crowd in front of the net and sent it past Crimson Kuusisto.

Harvard tied the game on a power play opportunity midway through the first. Corriero sent the puck back to junior defenseman Pamela Van Reesema, who fired a shot toward Princeton goaltender Megan Van Beusekom. Crimson sophomore winger Lauren McAuliffe was there to deflect the shot past Van Beusekom for her fourth goal of the season.

The Crimson controlled the rest of the period, but neither team could mount much offense. After 20 minutes, both teams were tied at five shots apiece.

The Tigers started strong again in the second. Princeton forward and co-captain Melissa Deland put a wrister by Kuusisto with less than two minutes gone in the period. The Tigers would add to their lead less than three minutes later with McAuliffe in the box for tripping. Princeton junior Nikola Holmes banged a rebound home after sophomore winger Gretchen Anderson’s shot hit the post.

Lesser teams might have quit, but the Crimson responded brilliantly after going down two goals.

With Deland penalized for tripping, Harvard junior captain and defenseman Jamie Hagerman set up Van Reesema for another shot. This time the shot was deflected to Catlin, who spun around and fired a wrist shot into the goal at 15:12 of the second. It was Catlin’s eighth goal of the season.

The Crimson utterly dominated the third period, outshooting the Tigers 10-2. Ingram found Corriero open in the zone at 1:20 into the period. Corriero, leading the nation in goals with 18 entering the game, added her 19th on a quick wrist shot.

Though it seemed that momentum was shifting in favor of the Crimson, the Tigers got the best of the overtime period. After only 30 seconds had elapsed, Rasmussen intercepted an Ingram pass in the Harvard zone. Senior forward Jessica Fedderly tipped Rasmussen’s shot by Kuusisto and that was the game.

“We are a better team, but they had a lot of momentum,” Corriero said. “It’s tough going in against a hot team like that when you’re cold.”