W. Hockey Bounces Back With Big Win

Though Friday’s heavyweight match-up with No. 3 Dartmouth may have been the main event, No. 1 Harvard certainly didn’t forget about its undercard bout in Burlington, Vt. on Saturday afternoon.

The Crimson (23-3-1, 13-3-0 ECAC) knocked out the University of Vermont (6-24-2, 2-14-0 ECAC) by a score of 6-0 to remain undefeated in the teams’ 12-game history.

The Harvard offense sprayed the Catamounts with 72 total shots on goal—28 in just the first period—as an Angela Ruggiero-less Crimson defense absolutely clamped down on the Vermont attack. The co-captain blue-liner was out serving a one-game suspension for what was ruled a kick to the head of a Dartmouth skater the night before, but the team filled in admirably in her absence.

“Our mindset was that we wanted to start fast and finish fast,” junior forward Jennifer Raimondi said.

And still fresh off its frenetically paced, intensely emotional loss to the Big Green, the Harvard assault showed absolutely no signs of slowing down.

The Crimson attack garnered two goals in each of the contest’s three periods, with junior forward Nicole Corriero and sophomore forward Julie Chu each contributing three-point nights. Corriero tallied two scores and an assist herself, while Chu added in a goal and two assists.

“We were playing off of the end of last night’s [Dartmouth] game,” Corriero said. “We knew that Vermont’s goalie was really good, and the only way to test her was to put more shots on her. Instead of doing the extra move and stick-handle as we would normally, here we were just trying to get the shot off and create that way.”

Indeed, Vermont netminders Kami Cote and Katelyn Nichols notched 65 admirable saves in the effort, but offensively, the Catamounts were able to squeak out a meager two shots on goal for the entire contest—both attempted in the first period of play.

“Our focus was to try and knock them down in as many areas as possible,” Corriero said, “and not let out in any respect, especially on defense. In the past, there have been times where there have been lapses in the blowout games, where we let in a weak goal, but I think we really focused on preserving the shutout for [freshman goalie Emily Vitt].”

Playing between the pipes for Harvard, Vitt recorded her fifth shutout on the season to improve to 7-0-0, pushing the Crimson above its all-time single-season shutout record with 11.

“The defense has been so solid all year, all the way through,” Raimondi said. “[And with Angela gone,] we needed different people to step up all around.”

Particularly impressive were Vitt’s fellow freshmen.

In addition to the first-year goalie, freshmen forwards Jenn Sifers and Katie Johnston joined defensemen Lindsay Weaver and Caitlin Cahow in contributing two goals and five assists on the night—in addition to the shutout.

“We have one of the best, if not the best, freshman classes in the country,” Corriero said. “All have been able to be contributors in one way or another, and we’re extremely lucky to have that kind of production. Clearly, the transition into collegiate hockey has been pretty seamless for them, and they’ve been able to make an impact right away.”

So with all said and done, does the TKO in Burlington at least partially wash away some of the sting from Friday’s loss in Hanover, N.H.?

“[After the Dartmouth game,] our main focus was to come out and show that we weren’t disappointed, that we were unfazed,” Corriero said. “We wanted to show that we were able to bounce back quickly, and we did. We may have been kind of down, but we definitely were not out.”

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