Comebacks Define Opening Weekend

After watching their favorite team’s season end in devastation time after time in the 1940’s and 50’s, fans of the Brooklyn Dodgers popularized the saying, “Wait till next year.”

For the Harvard women’s hockey team, next year is this year, and the Crimson’s future helped bury its past by opening the new season with a victory.

No. 7 Harvard beat Quinnipiac in Friday night’s season opener thanks in large part to the efforts of three freshmen, winning, 3-2, at the Bright Hockey Center in a game that Crimson head coach Katey Stone called “ugly.”

The win ushered in a fresh start for the Harvard skaters, who are trying to rid themselves of the bitter taste left over from their crushing four-overtime loss to Wisconsin in the first round of last season’s NCAA Tournament.

Hampered by penalties and sluggish play for much of the first two periods, Harvard found itself in a 2-1 hole late into the second. But with less than two minutes left in the frame, freshman Liza Ryabkina took matters into her own hands.

The Ukranian native stole the puck near center ice and charged into the Bobcats’ zone. After finessing her way around two Quinnipiac defenders, Ryabkina tied the score with her first career goal.

“It was a great individual effort,” fellow rookie Katharine Chute said. “[For her] to put it in really inspired us.”

The score sparked the Crimson, which took control of the game in the final period.

Midway into the third, Bobcats forward Kelley Davies was called for a checking penalty. Taking advantage of the power play, Harvard junior Sarah Vaillancourt carved her way through the Quinnipiac defense and unloaded a shot towards the top right corner of the goal. As the puck hit the crossbar and flew high into the air, Chute found herself in the right place at the right time to net her first career goal.

“[The puck] actually hit me in the body and dropped right in front of me and all I had to do was shovel it in,” Chute said.

The Crimson started off on a high note when freshman Kate Beusser scored the first of the trifecta of debut goals, redirecting a rebound to give the squad an early 1-0 lead. Vaillancourt and another rookie, Leanna Coskren, both assisted on the score.

But sloppy play prevented Harvard from capitalizing on its initial momentum.

“We made the game harder than it needed to be today,” Stone said. “We just kind of beat the puck up today.”

The Crimson also hurt itself with penalties, committing seven over the course of the first two periods. The Bobcats took advantage, getting to sophomore goalie Christina Kessler twice on the power play to take the lead.

“Early in the season when you’re still working on your penalty kill you don’t necessarily want to test it that much,” Stone said.

But Kessler held her own between the pipes. Quinnipiac pelted the net with 21 shots in the first two periods, only two of which got past the Harvard netminder, who flashed the glove to make a few nice saves in the opening frame.

After Ryabkina evened the score for the Crimson, Stone decided to shake up the top lines, moving sophomore Anna McDonald up to the first line in place of Chute, and using Chute to center the second line. The change worked, and Harvard returned to the ice reinvigorated for the final period.

After the game, Stone was happy to have come away with a victory, but stressed that the Crimson needs to tighten up its performance in the coming weeks.

“Hopefully these guys will understand that the win gives us confidence, the separating themselves in the third period gives us confidence,” Stone said. “But they also know that they can come better prepared.”

-Staff writer Loren Amor can be reached at lamor@fas.harvard.edu.