Harvard Gears for Senior Weekend

While the emotions will be running high for the No. 3 Harvard women’s hockey team when it closes out its regular season games this weekend, the stakes will be even higher.

The three seniors on the team—co-captains Lauren McAuliffe and Angela Ruggiero and forward Mina Pell—conclude another chapter in their storied athletic careers this weekend as the Crimson looks to capture the regular season ECAC championship and solidify one of the coveted four spots for the NCAA tournament.

“It’s going to be a sad weekend this weekend and next weekend as a senior,” Ruggiero said. “But hopefully we get some W’s out of the set.”

Harvard (23-3-1, 13-3-0 ECAC) is currently tied at 26 points with No. 4 St. Lawrence (22-7-1, 13-3-0) atop the ECAC brackets, followed by No. 2 Dartmouth, who has 25.

The Crimson needs to defeat both Yale (12-12-3, 8-8-0) on Saturday, and No. 9 Princeton (19-8-0, 11-5-0) on Sunday in order to claim the regular season league title, since Harvard has a better overall record than the Saints and swept St. Lawrence earlier in the season.

The Tigers are one of only two teams who defeated Harvard this season, a game that they won 6-3 and according to Ruggiero was “more like the WWE [than] hockey.”

“When we played them at the end of January, we didn’t play our best game—the bounces weren’t going

our way, we had a lot of penalties and we couldn’t clean rebounds [from the] front of the goal,” sophomore winger Julie Chu said. “We sort of had a defensive breakdown,”

Clinching the title would give the Crimson the No. 1 seed in the conference’s playoff tournament. Assuming the Saints defeats Union twice to capture second place and Dartmouth bests Cornell and Colgate to stay at third by weekend’s end, Harvard would avoid the league’s toughest competition early on in the tournament. This would give it an easier road to the championship game and—even with a loss—would still help it claim place for the Frozen Four.

With these thoughts looming overhead, the Crimson will look to continue the dominating play it showed in its 6-0 victory over Vermont—in which it outshot the Catamounts 72-2—and not the slow start it put forth in the 3-2 loss to the Big Green.

“It’s just about going out there and playing well,” Chu said. “Against Dartmouth we came out really flat. We need to play with lots of intensity and passion—play to win. And we need to set the tone from the start for the rest of the game.”

If the rankings and revenge factor don’t have the team playing on a higher level, the emotions surrounding the last regular season games in the careers of McAuliffe, Ruggiero and Pell just might do the trick.

“I’ve been really emotional—I’m kind of a crier. It’s just so sentimental…especially Sunday’s game,” McAullife said. “I think it’s going to affect me, but not during the game. After the game it will hit me.”

Holding the venue at home makes it all the more special for the team.

“Bright Hockey Center is my favorite place to play. I’ve been there six years. It’s the perfect place to play hockey,” Ruggiero said. “Other arenas, you have to adjust to the ice, adjust to the boards—not at Bright. It has great consistency. Plus there’s a rich history behind that rink—a history I’m proud to have been a part of.”

Despite the mixed feelings of intensity and nostalgia, the common sentiment for Harvard is a desire to win.

“Every year, I have been lucky enough to get to play the best sport in the world with twenty of my best friends almost every day of the week,” McAuliffe said. “This team has been part of my family for the past four years and I am so sad to have to end my career here. But I’d love to end it on top.”

The Crimson wants to avenge its earlier loss to Princeton, in particular.

In Sunday’s contest against the Tigers, Pell will square off against one of her long-time friends from back home, the Tigers’ senior forward Lisa Rasmussen, in their last regular season game.

“Although I would much rather have her on my side, I am glad our last college game is against each other,” Rasmussen said.

“I’m excited—I want to end it on a good note, but I’m not getting very emotional yet,” Pell said. “It’s a new chapter, and we have a long way to go. The biggest part is ahead of us.”

But before Harvard embarks on that part of the journey it must focus on its games against Yale and Princeton.

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