W. Icers Blank UVM

The No. 2 Harvard women’s hockey team took care of business on Saturday night in a prelude to Sunday’s showdown with No. 3 Dartmouth, posting a comfortable 3-0 victory over Vermont behind the scoring efforts of junior winger Nicole Corriero and co-captain Angela Ruggiero.

Dominating the Catamounts in each of the three periods, Harvard demonstrated why it had jumped to No. 2 in the polls, extending its regular-season ECAC unbeaten streak to 23 games.

As its play showed, Harvard did not look past Vermont (4-15-1, 0-6-0 ECAC) on Saturday, but Sunday’s matchup with Dartmouth was on everyone’s mind.

“[We were] certainly working for [Sunday] in a lot of cases out there tonight with special teams and forechecks and that type of thing, and how we want to break the puck out,” Harvard coach Katey Stone said.

The Crimson owned Vermont from the first drop of the puck, as Harvard spent almost all of the first period bullying the Catamounts in their own zone.

Virtually unable to clear the puck from its zone, Vermont resorted to icing repeatedly, but Harvard continued to apply pressure.

The Crimson jumped on the board at 7:15 in the first period, when Corriero deflected freshman defenseman Lindsay Weaver’s shot from the left side of the blue line.

Minutes later Corriero missed another chance to score after fooling a Catamount defender before being denied by Vermont netminder Kami Cote from point-blank range. Corriero recovered the rebound and shot the puck through the back of the crease, between Cote and the posts, but there was no Harvard stick waiting to knock it in.

The missed opportunity ultimately cost Corriero a hat trick. With the Crimson on the power play late in the second period, Corriero netted her second tally of the game. The forward—standing directly outside the crease—managed to find the puck among a crowd of bodies and knock it in with the help of co-captain Lauren McAuliffe, who picked up the second of her two assists on the day.

“We were just working the puck very well on that power play,” Corriero said.

“I just tried to get my stick on it and get it on net as hard as possible. It was definitely good to be able to capitalize on our power play like that.”

Senior blueliner Ruggiero netted the second Harvard goal at 12:51 in the first period as she guided the puck between thick Vermont traffic and, without batting an eye, sent a wrister past Cote.

Ruggiero has scored a point in all 12 games she has played for the Crimson this season.

Though Harvard kept the pressure on all game, Vermont somewhat stifled the Crimson offense behind the strong play of Cote.

The goaltender made spectacular play after play between the pipes, often sprawling across the ice and accumulating 21 saves in the second period alone.

Cote managed 50 overall, a total indicative of Harvard’s aggressiveness and Cote’s skill.

“She’s an amazing goalie,” Corriero said. “You’re not going to score on the first shot, that’s for sure. If she can see the puck, she’s going to stop it.”

The Crimson used two goalies, as freshman Emily Vitt replaced sophomore starter Ali Boe in the final frame of action.

Vitt made two saves, and Boe seven for her ninth win of the season.

Although neither goaltender saw much action in net, Boe saved the shutout in the middle of the second period by gloving a shot from Vermont’s Hilary Johnson on a breakaway.

Conspicuously absent on the Bright ice was forward Julie Chu. The sophomore, who ranks in the top 13 nationally in both points and assists per game with 1.58 and 1.08 respectively, was apparently just resting prior to Harvard’s matchup against archrival Dartmouth.

“We’re just taking precautions, that’s all,” Stone said. “No need for her to go today. She’ll be ready to go [against Dartmouth].”