Harvard Readies For UMD Doubleheader

The first-place Harvard women’s hockey team (9-1-0, 9-1-0 ECAC) begins a two-game weekend series tonight against University of Minnesota-Duluth at Bright Hockey Center.

In its first non-conference game of the season, the Crimson will take the ice against another national powerhouse in the Bulldogs (9-4-1, 9-4-1 WCHA), who are currently in second place in their conference.

“This is probably our biggest weekend to date,” senior co-captain Jennifer Sifers said. “This is our first real challenge playing a top-ranked team. We’re also coming off a huge weekend having beaten Princeton, 5-0.”

Although UMD has won only one of its last six games, underestimating them would be unwise. That lone win merely came against the No. 1 ranked team in the country and could prove to be the upset of the season in collegiate women’s hockey. One week ago, the Bulldogs shut out Wisconsin, 2-0, snapping the Badgers’ 26-game unbeaten streak.

Freshman goalie Kim Martin, a member of the Swedish Olympic team that upset the United States in the semifinal round at the Winter Games in Turin, stopped 25 shots and earned USCHO Defensive Player of the Week honors. UMD also has talented senior netminder Riitta Schaublin on the roster.

“We know that both goaltenders are extremely talented,” Sifers said. “We know that we’re really going to need to get a lot of shots on net.”

Clearly, the Bulldogs can muster stellar talent, with a roster including three Olympians in addition to Martin. Nonetheless, Harvard head coach Katey Stone downplays any tendency to focus on the credentials of the opponent.

“If we spend too much time worrying about the opponent, we’ll lose focus on the things we need to do to be successful,” Stone said.

Although the Crimson does not tailor its game plan to disrupt an opponent’s style of play, but Harvard has noticed that the Bulldogs can unleash tremendous pressure on the offensive end with their aggressive fore-checking.

“In practice, we’ve been focusing on specific breakouts to beat their fore-check,” Sifers said. “They like to crash down on the wings, and we want to make sure we’re open so that we can do a variety of things.”

The Crimson brings three potent scorers to counter an explosive UMD offense that averages 3.64 goals per game. Sophomore forward Jenny Brine, reigning ECAC Player of the Week, leads the nation with 15 goals while senior co-captain Julie Chu and sophomore forward Sarah Vaillancourt have 26 and 19 points, respectively, in only eight games each.

Harvard is prepared to see the Bulldogs employ man coverage often against its snipers.

“They should be more concerned about shadowing players on our team than us on them,” Sifers said.

This pair of games against the Bulldogs marks the opening of a grueling December schedule for Harvard, during which the team faces six contests in 15 days.

“We’ll know going into Christmas what kind of team we have,” Stone said. “This is the beginning of an exciting stretch.”