Crimson Leaps to League Action

The sweater one wears means a lot in college hockey.

On Tuesday night, Harvard senior Ali Boe, junior Katie Johnston, and fellow junior Jennifer Sifers wore the ECAC All-Stars jerseys to take on the U.S. National Team. This weekend, they will be wearing the Crimson women hockey ones in the start of their campaign to beat their fellow conference standouts and win another ECAC crown.

“It was a fun opportunity for those girls, but I would not take too much out of it,” said Harvard coach Katey Stone about Tuesday’s game. “I was more concerned about kids getting hurt, but that didn’t happen, luckily.”

Now the entire conference focus turns to league play as every ECAC team will be in action this weekend.

Three years in a row Harvard has been able to add another year to its ECAC championship banner in Bright. And, for three years, it has made the NCAA finals.

While the two facts may not be directly connected, it is clear that the team that can make it out of the ECAC—with its top caliber upper level of teams—is automatically a contender on the national level.

This season, team members say they expect the competition to be even tighter than the last two years because of the impact that the Olympics will have, especially on ECAC teams.

“Most teams have lost at least one player to either the U.S. or Canadian National teams, and that’s going to bring all the teams closer together,” Johnston said. “Every game will be a battle for every team. There will be no dominant team.”

The current frontrunner for the league is St. Lawrence—whom the Crimson will see next weekend. The Saints are ranked No. 1 in the country currently.

“I don’t think that they are so good that they are unbeatable—I hope,” Stone said. “A lot of teams will be up in the mix. You can’t afford to have the mindset that a game will be easy.”

With Stone’s warning in mind, this season will likely see a higher number of upsets than in the last two years. Currently, three ECAC teams are in the national rankings, with two more in other receiving-votes categories.

Maybe the biggest impact, however, will come from the newer teams that are still developing, and so their abilities remain a mystery.

“Just the fact that they have enough players to expand shows that it’s growing,” Johnston said. “It can only help. New teams are obviously going to struggle, but they will build up quickly if they can offer scholarships.”

One of these very teams—Quinnipiac—will be Harvard’s opponent tonight at 7 p.m. at Bright Hockey Center.

The Bobcats are currently 1-2-1, but notched an impressive victory when they opened their ECAC season with a big win over Yale.

“Quinnipiac will be a good team this season,” Stone said. “Anything can happen when you aren’t ready to go.”

The bigger challenge this weekend for the Crimson may be its Saturday matchup at home against the Tigers.

Princeton is just outside the national top 10, and last year they were the only team not to lose to Harvard during the latter’s 21 game unbeaten streak leading up to the NCAA finals.

Roxanne Gaudiel—a key component of the Tigers last year—returns in-net for Princeton and could make a game-changing impact. Her goals-against average last season was 1.88—the second highest in program history.

Puck drops on Saturday at 4 p.m.

—Staff writer Gabriel M. Velez can be reached at gmvelez@fas.harvard.edu.