Women's Hockey Takes Game One Versus Duluth

For the full sixty minutes of hockey on Friday night, the No. 5 Harvard women’s hockey team looked like national title contenders.

Meanwhile, No. 7 Duluth could only look on as the Crimson outplayed them in a 3-1 victory. The two teams will return to Bright Hockey Center for a rematch Saturday night at 7 p.m.

"Our kids were fired up and ready to go," Harvard coach Katey Stone said. "It was a high tempo, intense game that we handled very well."

The Crimson extended its record to 10-1-0 (9-1-0 ECAC) by overwhelming the Bulldogs' defense and its superb goaltender Kim Martin. Although Harvard only finished 2-of-12 on the power play, and failed to score on two different 5-on-3 chances, it managed 21 shots during its man-advantage situations. Also, two of its goals were the result of patient play in the special teams combined with great finishing touches.

Sophomore forward Sarah Vaillancourt scored the first of these and assisted on the second, finding senior forward Liza Solley all alone in front of the net. Vaillancourt also assisted on the third goal.

In between the pipes for Harvard, sophomore Brittany Martin played aggressively to hold Duluth to a single goal that appeared like it may have actually hit the post instead of the inside of the net. In total, she turned away 19 shots in the victory and extended her record to 8-1-0.