W. Hockey Captures Third ECAC Regular Season Title With Win Over Princeton

You might say Harvard gave the Tigers a case of Kat-got-your-tongue.

Junior Kat Sweet created the eventual game-winning goal for sophomore Liza Solley midway through the second period, and junior Nicole Corriero sealed the 2-0 victory with an empty-net goal late in the third over Princeton on Senior Day at Bright Hockey Arena.

Avenging its early-season loss to the Tigers (20-9-0, 12-6-0 ECAC), the No. 3 Crimson (25-3-1, 14-3-0 ECAC) silenced the opposing attack with a potent forecheck and kept the puck pinned in Princeton’s own offensive zone for most of the afternoon.

“We wanted to put the pressure on their defensemen, and I think we did that. We played a lot of the game in their end, which was awesome,” said Harvard coach Katey Stone.

With the win, Harvard captured a split of the ECAC title with No. 4 St. Lawrence, who swept Union this weekend to post an equal conference record. The Crimson’s better overall record and sweep of St. Lawrence in head-to-head action, however, secures Harvard the No. 1 seed in the ECAC tournament.

Solley’s decisive goal started as a dangerous pass behind the Harvard net. Co-captain Angela Ruggiero had possession of the puck when she faked taking the puck along the boards and cut inside towards the goal, bringing the puck to within inches of sophomore goaltender Ali Boe and a pressing Princeton attack waiting to pounce on a mistake.

But Ruggiero skated forward a few feet forward and sent a crisp pass to Sweet, who was cutting up towards center ice with one defender in sight.

When Sweet made her way to the right side of the ice, Solley made her move on the left side. Sweet held on to the puck until the last possible moment when she sent a perfectly placed pass to Solley’s stick, who punched in the puck past Tigers’ goalie Megan Van Beusekom.

The goal capped a game in which the third line—Sweet, Solley, and sophomore Carrie Schroyer—saw much more playing time than usual because of the quality of their performance.

“Early on [the third line] were freelancing out there, not quite as crisp as they typically are. And then bang, they got it going and they did a great job and played a ton for us,” Stone said.

With the one-goal lead, Harvard’s forecheck stifled the Princeton offense.

“The [defensemen] were good, we just couldn’t break it out,” said Tigers coach Jeff Kampersal. “We just didn’t make great decisions—the [defensemen] or the wingers, in terms of generating enough speed to the middle of the rink. Give credit to Harvard, they shot us down.”

It was Princeton’s strategy of shadowing Ruggiero that actually forced Harvard to adjust its own play, and the Tigers couldn’t find an answer.

“Basically what I was trying to do is utilize the four-on-three and four-on-four it created below and have faith in my teammates,” Ruggiero said.

Kampersal actually sympathized with Ruggiero’s frustrations, but thought it necessary for his team to stay in the game by sticking as close as Princeton did.

“I do feel bad for her sometimes. She’s such a good player—she’s probably bored with college hockey sometimes. And then when you get someone stuck on you, it’s not anything that’s thrilling,” he said. “[It’s] nothing that we want to do to piss her off, but we want to win. So that’s our best way that we thought we could win.”

“I can’t say that I love it—someone up in your face staring at you and sticking you the whole game, but I was ready for it,” Ruggiero said.

Following a scoreless first period highlighted by few quality offensive opportunities for the Crimson and an effective Princeton forecheck, both teams spent the second period killing penalties and looking for the tie-breaking goal.

With just over two minutes left in the game, Princeton pulled Van Beusekom, allowing Corriero to score from the opposing blueline on the second of Ruggiero’s assists.

Both Boe and Van Beusekom played solid games between the pipes. Boe posted her second straight shutout with her second consecutive 19-save effort, while Beusekom stopped 40 shots in the loss.

Harvard is taking its second straight low-scoring victory in stride.

“All these weekends it’s been playoff hockey, which is only going to help us. I think we’ve had every kind of game possible,” Stone said.

“We’re going to take a couple days off and then start our new season because everything we’ve done up until this point has got us in poll position in the ECAC, but it didn’t mean anything as far as winning the thing and go on to NCAAs,” Ruggiero said.

The Crimson will get to see just how prepared they are this weekend, when Harvard hosts Cornell in a three-game series.

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