W. Hockey Loses Battle of Titans: Round 1

No. 3 Dartmouth women’s hockey coach Mark Hudak promised prior to his team’s matchup against No. 2 Harvard that the key to victory would be creating traffic in front of the net and throwing shots on goal. With the score knotted at one and 3:26 remaining in the third period, Sarah Clark proved him right, banking a sharp-angle shot off sophomore netminder Ali Boe’s leg for the game-winner and handing Harvard its first loss of the season.

Though the Crimson (13-1-1, 5-1-0 ECAC) had kept the Big Green pinned down inside its own zone for much of the period, Dartmouth (11-1-2, 5-0-1) capitalized on a timely clear to set up shop deep at the Harvard end. With the Crimson unable to clear, the Big Green crowded the front of the net, allowing Clark to slip her shot through the scrum around the crease.

“A lucky bounce,” Harvard coach Katey Stone said. “I don’t mean it in a derogatory way because they worked their tails off. But games like this you want to see it happen clean, so the bounce of the puck—that’s kind of a bummer.”

Despite the sudden blow, the Crimson stormed back, once again holding the puck deep in the Big Green zone and sending several shots skidding along the goal line.

“As soon as [Dartmouth scored] we went right after them again,” Stone said. “We didn’t back off. We didn’t hang our heads...We were dominating play, controlled, played possession hockey for a large part of the third period.”

After pulling Boe—who suffered the first loss of her collegiate career—for a sixth skater and after a whistle against Dartmouth’s Kirstin Anderson for interference, Harvard appeared poised to capitalize on its two-man advantage.

But despite several nearly perfect setup passes and almost open-net opportunities, the Big Green slammed the door shut, tipping passes away from potential shooters and blocking shots before they reached keeper Christine Capuano, who was still forced to record 37 saves despite the support in front.

“It’s that second and third shot that we need to work on,” co-captain Angela Ruggiero said, “fighting in front of the net and putting those rebounds in.”

Of the 74 shots the Crimson attempted, 22 were stopped by Dartmouth defenders before ever reaching the goal, including 13 in the final period.

But the best missed opportunity came with under three minutes to go.

After Capuano skated behind the net in an attempt to clear the puck, her stick became entangled as several players fought for possession.

With no stick, she retreated to the goal, defending as best she could. Once again, her teammates rose to the occasion, stopping several shots in front, while clearing the backside of the net so that a cross-crease pass glided through untouched with no one left standing to bang it home.

“They put a lot of pressure on,” Hudak said. “They had a six-on-four and they didn’t get the bounce.”

The Big Green, on the other hand, managed just 12 shots in the third, only six of which made their way to Boe.

Shots were few and far between due to intense Harvard pressure at the other end, aided by the loss of Olympian Cherie Piper—who was doubtful for the game but played, only to be knocked out in the second period. Nevertheless, two managed to sneak past Boe.

Earlier in the period, Clark collected a puck which squirted free along the right wall and curled into the Crimson zone unopposed before firing a shot high to Boe’s left to knot the game at one apiece.

Harvard had taken the first lead of the game just 6:22 earlier as the second period drew to a close.

Ruggiero gathered the puck inside the right circle at the Crimson end before firing the puck cross-ice to the Dartmouth blue line and a waiting sophomore Jenn Raimondi.

After slowing to receive the pass, Raimondi slipped away from a defender with a hard fake and snapped the shot past Capuano to open the scoring.

“On the goal that they scored, that was the second time in the same shift that they got somebody behind us,” Hudak said. “We broke down there a little bit mentally.”

Harvard continued its barrage at the Big Green end, with junior Nicole Corriero and Ruggiero peppering the Dartmouth net with 24 shots between them, with two of latter’s rattling the post.

“You hit posts and you figure the next one’s mine,” said Ruggiero, whose assist extended her point-scoring streak to 14. “I hit a couple early and we had many, many opportunities that just either didn’t bounce our way or we didn’t capitalize on.”

Harvard returns to action on the road Jan. 30-31 against Princeton and Yale.

—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.