Captains Concoct Team Chemistry, Success

Call it a simple chemistry experiment.

There was a lot of pressure for last season’s Harvard women’s hockey team, touted as the most talented squad Katey Stone had ever coached. It was supposed to win it all. The Crimson had an explosive offense. It had a hot goalie. Its defense was solid.

But a devastating 4-3 double-overtime loss to Minnesota-Duluth in the NCAA championship cooled the reaction right when Harvard’s play had reached its climax.

Mix into the equation the graduation of five top seniors and most observers didn’t expect a repeat performance by the Crimson this season.

But on the Bulldogs’ game-winning tally, something happened that went unobserved by many outside of the Harvard circle.

Co-captains Lauren McAuliffe and Angela Ruggiero—then both juniors— made an attempt to stop Nora Tallus’ game-winning shot. Ruggiero slid across the ice to block the puck with her leg, while McAuliffe stayed high, hoping to block it with her shoulder or side. But the puck found its way through the pair, and Harvard went home vanquished.

Since that game, McAuliffe and Ruggiero have been working to find the winning formula.

Considering Harvard emerged the regular-season and ECAC-tournament champions, the duo hasn’t done a bad job guiding this experiment so far.

“We didn’t have to rely on our chemistry as much last year because we had the best talent in the country,” Ruggiero said. “I say this year [we have] those little intangible things that really bring a team together. You can’t really create it, but we just have it this year. Therefore it’s elevated our game.”

IT’S NO SACRIFICE

What’s changed for the Crimson this season? For starters, selfless play has led to wins for the team.

If you compare the team’s stats this year to last season, overall scoring is down a bit, as a few individuals have sacrificed their scoring-sheet stats for the good of the team.

“Last year, maybe it limited us that there were three big scorers on the team—Julie Chu, myself and Jennifer Botterill [’03].” Ruggiero said. “My numbers have gone down, Chuey’s have gone down, but everyone else has gone up.”

Last season, Chu posted 93 points, while Ruggiero scored 83. Botterill led all Harvard scorers with 112.

“We’ve spread out the offensive power. Everyone’s sort of stepped up to the plate so that means if I’m having a bad game, someone else will step up to the plate,” Ruggiero added. “If I’m marked or if [Chu’]s marked—now Nicole [Corriero]’s had a stellar year as well.”

The selfless play of some that leads to their lowered numbers has allowed others—like Corriero—to step up in different roles. Corriero leads the Crimson in scoring with 71 points.

“Everyone realizes the motto you keep hearing, ‘team first,’” Ruggiero said. “It’s hard to put ‘team first’ sometimes and everyone’s doing a great job of figuring out what their role is on the team and what they can do individually to contribute—sort of buying into all of the systems that coach has taught us this year.”

In addition, the emergence of an aggressive third line and the solid play of Harvard defensemen—not to mention the many contributions of the freshmen—have all helped fill in the missing pieces of the puzzle.

“We play our hearts out,” McAuliffe said. “We’re playing because we love to play…We’re playing because we love the game. I think that’s really reflected in our style. We hustle, we play for our teammates.”

BALANCE TO THE FORCE

This selfless play and the role fulfillment by each individual have led to a strengthening of team bonds.

“The mood in the locker room is a lot different before games this year as opposed to last year. Last year was a little more serious maybe because everyone thought, this is your year, you’re No. 1, and you have this X on your back,” Ruggiero said. “This year we were No. 1 for a week, so the pressure’s off us. It’s a lot more relaxed in the locker room. People are just enjoying each other. If you’re happy when you step on the ice, you’re more likely to go 100 percent in practice and 100 percent in games.”

The team’s good spirits are not simply accounted for by the win total, but by the atmosphere fostered by both McAuliffe and Ruggiero.

Ruggiero is often recognized around the nation as being the best at what she does. Not only is she a strong defenseman with a lethal offensive arsenal, she is quite simply one of the most talented all-around hockey players in women’s college hockey today. In fact, calling her the best player in the world might not be far off. Her very presence on the ice commands respect from teammates and opposing players alike.

This is balanced by McAuliffe’s style and personality. The epitome of hard work leading to success, McAuliffe has staked her claim as one of Harvard’s premier players by honing her skills through sheer grit and determination.

The captains’ different experiences offer two different but complementing examples of excellence to the rest of the team.

But just as the captains encourage working hard, they give a substantial amount of attention to playing hard as well.

It starts with the singing of the team’s traditional hockey song, Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” to prep for games. It leads into dismounts by freshman Lindsey Weaver. And it culminates with Kat Sweet’s motivational speaking.

“All I have to say about that is every Monday I don’t have a voice,” Sweet said.

“We just have a good time and get pumped up,” Ruggiero said. “You can only focus on hockey for so long.”

This sentiment is embraced by McAuliffe, the leading architect of the team’s chemistry.

“There are times when you need a serious, fire-’em-up speech, but that time is small compared to the times when you need to make the best of it and just have fun,” she said. “I guess I can do both, but I prefer to do more jokes and be more lighthearted.

“There’s a little bit of a prankster in me.”

That’s the understatement of the year. Consider McAuliffe’s account of a team bus ride back from Toronto.

“Me being as skinny as I am, I’m able to climb into the [overhead] compartments and crawl the length of the bus. So Nicole [Corriero] is sitting up front and someone opened [the compartment] up because we were all in on it and I just put my arm over and whacked her head and then get back up there.”

Just once, right? Wrong…

“The first couple of times she’d be like, ‘all right, stop,’” McAuliffe said, mimicking her teammate’s voice. “And then I’d do it again. And everyone kept getting farther away from her. She’d be like ‘Okay guys, seriously,’” again impersonating Corriero, “and she’d look around and no one would be anywhere near her, and she’d say ‘who was it?’ and then she’d go on doing whatever she was doing again.”

Done yet? Not a chance.

“Kat [Sweet] gave me a water bottle and I poured a little water on her head. She was so clueless. It literally took forever. The entire bus was laughing our faces off. Finally I think I dropped the water bottle and she realized where the hits were coming from. It was entertaining.”

Fortunately for the team’s chemistry, pranks aren’t the only way McAuliffe shows her outgoing personality.

“It’s really funny because I met Lauren first on my recruiting trip...Aside from my host, who was Jamie Hagerman ’03, she was the one person I remembered,” Corriero said.

“That kind of going out of her way to make people feel welcome in any kind of situation...Having that sets a really good example for everybody else. You just kind of build on that and feed on that.”

But even after taking into account her wit, sense of humor and the welcoming atmosphere McAuliffe creates, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone more passionate about the game of hockey. While she may not be the leader on the score sheet, no one plays harder or wants to win more badly than she does. And McAuliffe gets results from her teammates while keeping everyone smiling.

“She’s a very witty, funny kid. She can be serious when she needs to be. She has to be a captain in certain respects. That other thing, that’s what people look up to her for,” Ruggiero said.

“She keeps people in good spirits all the time is always smiling, always complementing, always poking a joke at something that just lightens the mode. Like I sort of said about the chemistry earlier this year—people are generally happy. That I think contributes to how you play on the ice.”

You can see it in the way she skates in practice and in games. Her posture is slightly hunched but poised, the perfect silhouette of a weary warrior.

When McAuliffe skates, you can tell she’s going her hardest. When she misses an opportunity, you can feel her disappointment. The way she conveys her emotions, you almost feel you’ve taken a part in the score after she celebrates a goal with her linemates.

“She has been completely instrumental in how well we’ve done this season because I feel like a lot of the times I’m more serious sometimes and we sort of take turns,” Ruggiero said. “People look to her as a leader, without a doubt. She’s prepared herself. She’s really elevated her game so much. People try to emulate her as a hockey player, but more importantly as a person. She has such a good time with life.”

In short, she wears her heart on her sleeve on and off the ice, and her teammates are all the better for it.

McAuliffe revealed the example she sets for the team when recalling the contrast between the NHL and how she plays—and expects her teammates to play—college hockey.

“I watched the Bruins-Rangers game the other day. Just to see these guys paid millions of dollars to play so many games a week—it was just uninspired. Not that their intentions are wrong, but I think they just get burnt out when they’re professionals,” she said.

“They could lose their inspiration and their heart and still get the paycheck. We don’t have that choice. Either we love it or we won’t play.”

Luckily for Harvard, McAuliffe has loved every moment of the past four years.

“The kids make fun of me. I’ll go to my teammates—I’ll say ‘this is my last practice on a Monday at the Bright Arena...ever.’ I tease them, but I really get emotional about it just because it’s been such an amazing experience.”

Perhaps McAuliffe will realize her true impact on the team and Harvard hockey when her teammates are given the opportunity to show their appreciation this weekend, when, win or lose, McAuliffe’s inspired college hockey career will at last come to an end.

Staff writer John R. Hein can be reached at hein@fas.harvard.edu.