Wein Language: I'm a Believer

“I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you” (Job 42:5).

I did not witness the coming of the Lord this weekend, but I did witness the homecoming of the goddesses of women’s hockey, who descended on the Bright Hockey Center this weekend.

I had heard the tales of the Crimson’s victories; how the exalted ones crushed Dartmouth and split a wild weekend in Minnesota. Now, with the annihilation of Colgate 10-0 and Cornell 8-0, I have witnessed the carnage first hand.

I am a believer.

It took only 16 seconds for the Crimson to emerge from the whirlwind and score its first goal against Colgate. Sixteen seconds, and I was a believer.

The women’s hockey team is the real deal. It is the best team at Harvard, and it will compete for an NCAA championship. Just ask Rebecca Lahar, Colgate’s goalie throughout the entire 10-0 onslaught. She went into the game blameless and upright.

“Basically, I had the same warmup,” Lahar said. “I just think about controlling the things I can control.” Like Job, she quickly realized how little was under her control, as the wounds kept multiplying without cause. Indeed, teams are powerless to stop the Crimson assault.

“First I thought we could come back,” Lahar said. “Then I thought, ‘Ok, let’s just hold them to that score.’ Then I wanted it to be over… just kidding.”

But she wasn’t kidding. She was suffering out there, living a veritable Goals Against Average Nightmare, in front of a merciless Crimson attack.

“It was like a practice for me,” Lahar said.

Job’s friends tried to justify his affliction, saying that he deserved it. Those same friends might point to Harvard’s 1-1 tie with Colgate last season, as well as its disappointing 3-1 loss to Cornell.

But Harvard showed no mercy in a 13-0 victory over the Vermont squad, who never came close to hurting them. The Crimson had no sympathy for a Dartmouth roster lacking its best players, destroying the Big Green 9-2. The Crimson destroys both the blameless and the wicked.

There wasn’t much more to learn in the second game of the weekend on Saturday after witnessing the destruction of Colgate the previous evening. A strange curiosity compelled me. Had I truly witnessed the awesome power of the Crimson? Had it simply been an aberration?

It seemed like an aberration as the Crimson led only 1-0 after the first period.

But, sure enough, Harvard emerged from the whirlwind again, scoring four times in the second period.

That night’s sacrifical lamb, Cornell goalie Sanya Sandahl, was rather Joban in her steadfastness through the suffering.

“I like games like this,” Sandahl said. “I see it as a challenge.”

If the masochistic Sandahl, who faced 47 shots, was really enjoying herself, the same cannot be said of Jessica Ruddock, Harvard’s goaltender.

Ruddock, in a sense, was also Job-like, suffering in her own right.

“I see it as a mental challenge, to stay alert, stay focused for a full 60 minutes,” Ruddock said after the Cornell game.

While Ruddock recorded only 13 saves on the weekend, she averaged 15 “skate to the corner, return to the net and shuffle your feet”’s per game. That’s an impressive 13:15 saves to S.T.C.R.T.N.A.S.Y.F. ratio.

“I don’t get bored,” Ruddock joked after the Cornell game. “I have my teammates to watch.” The way the games were going, Ruddock had one of the worst seats in the house.

Those of us who had good views of the massacre, like readers of the book of Job, are left with more questions than answers.

What is the record for goals scored in a game and can this squad break it? Could the Crimson beat the Finnish national team? Can the Crimson play an entire game with only four players and still win? And most importantly, what will happen at the NCAA championships in March?

We’ll get our answer when the whirlwind descends on Minnesota in the Frozen Four.

—Staff writer David A. Weinfeld can be reached at weinfeld@fas.harvard.edu.