W. Hockey Dominates Huskies for Beanpot Title

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass.—The Harvard women’s hockey team might want to look into eventually buying a cupboard for all that dishware.

For the sixth straight year, the No. 3 Crimson (18-2-1) captured the Beanpot championship, downing Northeastern (11-7-7) by a convincing margin of 5-1 last night at Kelley Rink.

Though Harvard has yet to surrender the tournament title of best in Boston since 1999, the importance of securing the historic event was not lost on Crimson head coach Katey Stone.

“I said to the kids after the game, ‘This never gets old,’” Stone said. “Winning the Beanpot never gets old. It’s a huge tournament. Everyone knows it’s for bragging rights in Boston, but it’s more than that: it’s an opportunity to play for something in the middle of February, and only four teams get that opportunity in women’s college hockey.”

“It gives you a sense of where your team’s at as far as handling pressure and competing for something,” Stone added. “That means a lot.”

Right from the contest’s opening minutes, the Crimson showed why it fields one of most prolific offenses in the nation, swarming the Northeastern zone and challenging Huskies goalie Chanda Gunn with 55 total shots on goal to Northeastern’s 11.

Gunn’s performance eerily resembled the exemplary play of Boston College goalie Lisa Davis, who stopped 59 shots of her own en route to a 4-1 Eagle loss in the tournament’s semifinal match-up against Harvard on Feb. 3.

Conversely, over the Crimson’s two Beanpot tournament games, Harvard goalies Emily Vitt and Ali Boe have needed only 18 combined saves to limit its opponents to one total goal.

“Goaltending is the biggest part of women’s hockey, if not all of hockey,” Huskies coach Joy Whoog said. “You have to have a hot goaltender if you’re going to win a big game, and [Gunn] played very well today…Chanda made some incredible saves today.”

Indeed, Harvard found a variety of ways to score, the first tally of the contest coming less than two minutes into the first period when freshman defenseman Caitlin Cahow capitalized on Northeastern’s inability to clear the puck out of their own territory, taking it herself and sliding it in past the Huskies defense.

Then, a little over six minutes later, freshman forward Liza Solley—who had assisted on Cahow’s tally—helped spark a stunning breakaway goal by co-captain defenseman Angela Ruggiero on a delayed penalty in order to put the Crimson ahead 2-0 before the first intermission.

“I think Chanda’s one of the best goalies in the country, no question about it,” Stone said. “I felt really good about the fact that we were able to get two quick ones early…She made us work, but the nice thing about it is we figured out a way to score a bunch of different kinds of goals from different lines and different situations.”

The Northeastern defense settled down in the second period, however, as their offense heated up.

Minutes after Gunn successfully neutralized a Harvard power play, Huskies forward Crystal Rochon caught Boe in the chest with a shot during a power play of her team’s own, causing the puck to fly up and over the goalie’s shoulder and fall into the back of the net.

Notably, six of the Huskies’ 11 total shots were taken in the frame.

“I thought we had a great second period,” Whoog said. “We won the second period, 1-0. We had a lot of chances.”

Indeed, in the third period Harvard rattled off a string of three straight goals by sophomore forward Jennifer Raimondi, freshman forward Jennifer Sifers and junior forward Nicole Corriero—two of which were assisted by center Julie Chu.

Raimondi’s goal was particularly deflating for the Huskies faithful, as Gunn appeared to initially stop the puck but could only watch as her glove fell off her hand to allow the score.

And with the goalie’s falling equipment, seemingly, went the Northeastern momentum.

“I don’t think [our] kids let up physically [after the goal],” Whoog said. “I think they tried to keep going, but I do think mentally that that definitely dampened their spirits a little bit.”

For her four-point tournament effort, Ruggiero was awarded Beanpot MVP while BC’s Davis garnered the Bertagna Award for most outstanding goalie for the second straight year.

The Crimson will head to Providence, R.I. to face ECAC foe Brown on Saturday before hosting the Bears at Bright Hockey Center on Sunday.

—Staff writer Pablo S. Torre can be reached at torre@fas.harvard.edu.