W. Hockey Falls Just Short Once More

The Harvard women’s hockey team staged a successful season-long campaign built on a foundation of teamwork and solid defense to prove it belonged among the nation’s top team. But in the final 20 minutes of the season, that foundation broke apart against Minnesota’s top line and with it any hope Harvard (30-4-1, 15-3-0 ECAC) had of avenging last season’s championship defeat, falling 6-2 in the National Championship game.

With the game knotted at two, Natalie Darwitz knocked through a rebound just nine seconds into the third period, a goal Harvard protested and forced under review due to a whistle that caused a lull in the action before the goal was scored.

The goal stood and marked the Crimson’s inevitable fall. The Golden Gophers scored three more unanswered goals in the third period and sent Harvard home runner-up for the second straight year.

“You can live with it a little better when you know that you’ve been beat by a great hockey team,” Harvard coach Katey Stone said.

Though the championship rout was a disappointing ending to the season, Harvard’s second-place finish exceeded the expectations of many—except, of course, for the team.

After graduating what Stone called her most talented class ever, there was little pressure on this year’s squad to return to the Frozen Four.

“It’s nice to have been able to have such a great experience from last year’s national championship, to say, ‘This is where you want to be. Now how are you going to get there, work back from that?’” Stone said.

Before the team had even played its first game of the season, Ruggiero guaranteed the Crimson would be in Providence to make another run at the national title. She and co-captain Lauren McAuliffe made good on the promise by setting a clear tone for the team on and off the ice that built a unity and spirit exemplary of what Harvard hockey is all about.

In a season when Stone expected the Crimson’s scoring margin to be one to two goals on average, the team posted a nation-best margin of 3.03.

Junior Nicole Corriero bore the brunt of Harvard’s scoring responsibilities, tallying 42 goals and 31 assists on the season, good for fourth-best in the nation with 73 points.

Ruggiero—who captured the Patty Kazmaier Award and was named Female Player of the Year by USA Hockey—remained the Crimson’s staple of consistency, scoring a point in 31 of the 32 games she played this season, in addition to spearheading the nation’s best defense.

Although total team scoring (151 goals) was down from last year’s blitzkrieg of offense (220 goals), Harvard’s defense didn’t disappoint, shutting down opposing offenses throughout the year to boast 45 goals allowed at the end of the season—five fewer than one year before.

While a great deal of credit goes to the Crimson blueliners, no one exceeded expectations quite like sophomore netminder Ali Boe.

Before the start of the season, Stone was unsure of which goaltender to start, and a friendly competition arose between Boe and freshman goalie Emily Vitt. Boe flourished under the pressure, quietly turning in a program-record seven shutouts to go along with a .924 save percentage and a 1.47 goals against average.

“She’s a sleeping giant,” Stone said. “I don’t care if anybody else notices. We notice, and that’s all that matters.”

Boe first proved her worth while preserving a 2-2 tie against Minnesota-Duluth in December, the Crimson’s first near-falter. The next day Harvard avenged its national title loss to the Bulldogs with a 7-2 victory.

A month later Harvard dropped a 2-1 heartbreaker to rival Dartmouth—one of only two teams the Crimson was unable to top this season. Falling to Princeton 6-3 in its next game gave Harvard the wake-up call it needed to march on to Providence. The team captured its sixth straight Beanpot Championship and rose to the No. 1 rank in February.

The Crimson was humbled in an emotional 3-2 bout at Dartmouth that saw Ruggiero receive a game misconduct late in the second period. The incident, however, had a rally effect on the team, highlighted by the selfless play of sophomore Julie Chu, who switched to defenseman in Ruggiero’s absence. Harvard staged a third period comeback before ultimately falling to the Big Green.

After capturing its third ECAC regular season title, Harvard swept into the playoffs before struggling to a double-overtime win against Brown in the conference semifinals. Junior Ashley Banfield suffered a concussion in the first overtime, but the team rallied to victory when freshman Katie Johnston scored the game-winner—the second time this season she had put away the Bears in an extra period.

The following day Harvard defeated St. Lawrence, 6-1, to capture the second ECAC tournament championship in program history.

The Crimson entered the Frozen Four ranked No. 2 and defeated the Saints for the fourth straight time, 2-1, to advance to the championship against Minnesota, where McAuliffe, Ruggiero and Mina Pell donned the Harvard jersey one final time.

“The toughest thing for me at the end of a season is to know that it’s not the caliber of player, it’s the caliber of their character that I will miss most,” Stone said at the team’s final press conference.

Throughout the season, the Crimson brought a banner bearing its motto, “Team First,” to its locker room wherever it went, except for the championship weekend in Providence. Thanks to the leadership of its three seniors, the team’s success on and off the ice had already proven that the reminder was no longer necessary.

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