Third-Period Goal Gives Dartmouth Season Sweep of W. Hockey

While Dartmouth’s Gillian Apps celebrated with her teammates after her game-winning goal with 1:15 left in the game, sophomore Ali Boe threw the puck out of the goal in disgust.

It was the moment Dartmouth fought to realize—and the moment Harvard fought to prevent—all third period.

After an epic battle—which included fireworks that sent Crimson’s co-captain Angela Ruggiero into the locker room early and saw No. 1 Harvard fight back to tie the game after being down two goals—Apps put the nail in the coffin, beating Boe off a faceoff in Harvard’s zone and giving No. 3 Dartmouth a 3-2 victory in the closing minutes at Thompson Arena in Hanover, N.H.

“We showed a lot of pride in our team, showed our depth, showed what we have, and just came up short,” said Crimson co-captain Lauren McAuliffe.

The loss dropped Harvard to 22-3-1 (12-3-0 ECAC) while Dartmouth improved to 19-5-2 (11-3-1).

Just over twelve and a half minutes into the second period, emotions stopped running high and started hitting hard.

Dartmouth’s Katherine Weatherston skated in to levy a hit on Ruggiero when the Crimson blueliner knocked her down in front of the Big Green’s bench. In her struggle to skate free, Ruggiero appeared to kick the opposing player in the head with her skate.

In retaliation, Dartmouth’s Alana BreMiller cross-checked Ruggiero to the ice as the latter skated away from Weatherston. At that point, a number of players began yelling at each other as Weatherston lay on the ice, and a visibly frustrated Ruggiero attempted to convince the referee to let her stay in the game.

“You certainly know there’s potential for some tempers to be up and emotions to go—it’s just unfortunate,” said Dartmouth coach Mark Hudak.

Ultimately, the referees assessed a kicking penalty and a game disqualification to Ruggiero, while Weatherston eventually got up and came back later in the game.

Throughout the game, the 1,555 fans made themselves heard with numerous chants, peaking in enthusiasm in the final minutes leading up to Dartmouth’s game-winning goal.

However, the loudest crowd response came during the delay following Ruggiero’s penalty, with the crowd chanting for her to be thrown out of the game, then cheering as she was told to leave the ice.

Right off the bat, Harvard felt the absence of its defensive anchor as Dartmouth emerged from the sideshow with a 4-3 advantage and capitalized on the situation. Sara Clark scored the powerplay goal as she took a hard slap shot from the left circle which deflected off Lydia Wheatley and right past Boe into the net.

But after the Crimson managed to fight back into the game, the Big Green needed another one to beat Harvard.

Apps–15 seconds after a stay in the sin bin–received the face off at the side of the right offensive circle and wove in behind the Crimson players and across the goal to put the puck right in for the decisive goal.

By this point in the game, Harvard appeared to be finally worn down by having only three defenders, with Dartmouth keeping the puck in its offensive zone and throwing shot after shot at Boe.

“They were playing their two lines a lot,” Hudak said. “We were able to get our third line in there more often and allow our first and second line to rest some. I thought our third line did a great job out there tonight and I think they realize at times that’s their role—to go out there, play defense, not allow the other team to score, give the other lines a breather so they can get back on deck and put a lot of pressure on.”

At the end of the second period, McAuliffe turned the Crimson back in the right direction by drawing two late periods penalties.

Late in the frame, McAuliffe had the puck deep in Dartmouth’s zone off of a turnover.  Her shot—which pasted the goalie—appeared to entered the goal before being swept out and saved by a Big Green defender.  The referees did not call the play a goal, eliciting cries from the Harvard bench.

Nevertheless, the Crimson entered the locker room down by two goals, needing to score quickly to put themselves back in the game.

Once again, McAuliffe provided them that boost.

Harvard came out in the third more relaxed—after having a break to cool down—and with an advantage that they were able to turn into to two quick goals.

“That kind of fueled that fire a bit, once you lose a player like [Ruggiero],” McAuliffe said. “We were just fired up we came out so strong. We played our hearts out that whole third period.”

With a one-man advantage, McAuliffe continued to lead the charge-passing the puck to a streaking Banfield who made Harvard’s first goal happen.

After receiving the puck, Banfield drove down behind the red line and then passed it pack out to junior forward Nicole Corriero on the other side of the net.  Corriero banged it home to bring Harvard back into the game.

A few minutes later, sophomore Julie Chu—who moved back to fill the void created by Ruggiero’s disqualification—ran through the defense on the left side of the ice, and then from almost the side of the rink, passed the puck all the way to right in front of the net on the opposite side, hitting Raimondi for the put-in.

“We’re not a one-person team,” Stone said. “We showed that tonight and you know what? We won a lot of big things tonight.”

In the first period, Harvard came out slow, like with its previous Friday night affair against St. Lawrence, looking a bit sluggish and allowing Dartmouth a few good chances right in front of the net.

Clark’s first period goal came on one of these plays—with Weatherston slicing the defense by sending the puck right through in front of the net and catching the cutter for the goal.

As the game went, on Harvard seemed to step up its level of play in response to the early push by Dartmouth.  By the third period—when the score was knotted at two—the Crimson had taken over the lead in shots on goal, reflective of their offensive pressure.

“We would have like to have executed a little bit faster on the power play,” Stone said. “We started slow today. The bottom line is we got better every period, we responded to all the adversity and again, we’re keeping our heads up because we played great at the end of that game.”

For Dartmouth, the win could prove to be a turning point in the season, coming after a stretch in which the team did not register a point in four of its previous five games.

“We were using a little different forecheck today, and I think that helps,” Hudak said. “I think it kept them in front of us. We didn’t offer up a lot of odd-man rushes and that makes a huge difference.”

Hudak also credited the forecheck with complementing Stephanie Cochran’s play in net.

“As a goalie you see the puck and not have to worry about the shooter and the person shooting the pass to. You can focus on the puck,” he said.

Cochran also had some help early on from a Crimson offense that took time to get going.

“We were just a little slow of foot,” Stone said. “We didn’t get the pucks to the net like we typically do.”

Cochran finished with 29 saves, while Boe posted 26 in the loss.

—Staff writer Gabriel M. Velez can be reached at gmvelez@fas.harvard.edu.