UVM Offers W. Hockey Little Resistance

Before No. 6 Harvard could serve up its resounding upset win over No. 2 Dartmouth, it had smaller fish to fry in the opening game of a weekend road trip.

The appetizer proved as delicious as the entrée, with the Crimson dispatching an overmatched Vermont squad in short order on Friday night.

Harvard (12-6-2, 11-1-1 ECAC) scored all of its goals on the power play in a brisk 4-0 dismissal of the Catamounts (5-19-3, 3-10-0) at the Gutterson Fieldhouse in Burlington.

The contest was never as close as the final score suggested—the 54-10 shot advantage is a better indicator. Vermont goalie Kami Cote racked up 50 saves to limit the damage from a determined Crimson offense, which peppered her with an array of shots all night in a relentless assault on the Catamounts’ zone.

“When a team has strong goaltending anything can happen,” tri-captain Nicole Corriero said. “[Cote] has always given our team a hard time. Shots that were sure goals she comes up with.”

At even strength Cote and the Vermont defense managed to hold firm, but could not withstand the Harvard attack on special teams. The Crimson converted four out of nine Catamount penalties into power-play goals, in a routine that has become comfortable for the team’s top five skaters and all-too-familiar for the team’s opponents.

“Our power play has really started to click,” Corriero said. “We’re starting to be able to make plays where we just know where the other players are and make passes on instinct alone.”

The first goal came with 2:39 left in the first period, which saw Harvard outshoot Vermont 17-2 but threatened to end in a scoreless tie until Corriero pushed the Crimson ahead in her customary fashion. Poised in front of the net, Corriero deflected a Julie Chu slapshot past Cote for the game’s opening score and her 31st tally of the year.

Corriero struck again at 1:17 of the second period—with a man advantage—when she collected her own rebound and forced the second effort past the netminder. That mark moved Corriero into a tie with two other players for the national goal-scoring lead at 32, and made her the country’s top power-play scorer with 13.

“Around the net she just has a talent for scoring,” junior tri-captain Julie Chu said of Corriero. “She throws the puck at the net and it goes in. When she shoots she shoots to score, and it’s a killer edge that few have.”

As if the Harvard attack were not potent enough with a single extra skater, the Crimson got its second chance of the game to strike at 5-on-3 a third of the way into the final period. Freshman Sarah Vaillancourt found senior Ashley Banfield open at 7:12 for her fifth goal of the year.

Chu, who also registered two assists on the night, capped off the Harvard scoring, slipping a shot past Cote with 4:56 left in the game.

The win was not solely a result of offensive excellence, but required a strong defensive effort as well, including preventing the Catamounts from scoring on an extended 5-on-3 advantage after Harvard picked up three consecutive penalties in the ninth minute of the second period. Emily Vitt got the start in goal and stopped all 10 shots she faced for her first win of the season.

With the victory, Harvard remained undefeated in 2005, moving to 5-0-1 since the New Year. It also stayed perfect all-time against Vermont—winning for the 13th straight time—and shut out the Catamounts for the sixth time in the last seven meetings between the New England rivals. Riding such an impressive streak, the victory got the Crimson in the mindset to tackle the Big Green the next day.

“We were able to get all four lines rolling,” Chu said. “When you get the confidence that you can move the puck and also get some rest—that always builds momentum moving on.”

—Staff writer Jonathan Lehman can be reached at jlehman@fas.harvard.edu.