NOTEBOOK: Fourth Line Breaks Through in Beanpot Blowout

One of the byproducts of the Crimson’s early offensive explosion in last night’s 8-0 rout of Northeastern in the Beanpot consolation game was the opportunity for head coach Katey Stone to employ her fourth line late in the game. After Harvard took a 5-0 lead, Stone emptied the bench and the little-used trio of junior Brenna McLean and sophomores Jodi Krakower and Kirsten Kester entered the fray.

“They’re the players that some games don’t get a lot of ice time,” co-captain Julie Chu said. ”But when they get a chance, they go out there and they play their hearts out.”

Displaying crisp passing, the unit logged several successful shifts towards the end of the second period and threatened the net several times.

“I think when they got a chance to go out, they were the best line,” Chu said. “They forechecked very well, they cycled the puck, and they created a lot of opportunities.”

The group finally broke through for a goal in the final frame. Sarah Wilson fed the puck to McLean in front of the net, and with Krakower on the doorstep distracting Huskies netminder Syd Arbelbide, McLean, with her back turned, flipped a backhand shot into the net.

“Especially when Brenna got a chance to score,” Chu said, “I think all of us were on our feet really quickly with a good pat and a good cheer, because she deserves it. She deserves everything she gets. That entire line does.”

In other happenings among the Harvard youngsters, freshman Kathryn Farni tallied her first career goal in the third period. And fellow frosh Cori Bassett, who has spent the vast majority of her rookie campaign on the blue line, skated as a forward last night, joining senior Katie Johnston and sophomore Jenny Brine on the Crimson’s third line. Bassett, though, got a painful introduction to the offensive rotation with time winding down in the game when she was caught in the face by a Huskies highsticking violation.



WHISTLE WORK

Much like last week’s opening round game, which featured a mere eight penalties in nearly two hours of game time, last night’s encounter was relatively foul-free. Northeastern was called for five penalties and only two in the first two periods. Harvard, for its part, was only whistled once.

“It’s nice to have only one chance to kill a penalty,” Stone said.

The Crimson was very successful in its rare special-teams opportunities in the game, converting its first two power-play chances, and killing its lone penalty with ease.

“I think our power play is getting the kind of looks at the net that we’re hoping for,” Stone added. “We’ve made some adjustments and hopefully given both units a little bit more support.”



A SEEDY STORY

Harvard’s recent two-loss week, which included the gut-wrenching triple-overtime defeat against BC in the Beanpot’s opening round last Tuesday and an upset at Colgate, did not affect the squad in the national rankings, as the Crimson remained perched at sixth in the new poll released Monday.

Northeastern head coach Laura Schuler concurs, evaluating Harvard on a par with the best teams her squad has faced this season.

“[No. 4] UNH, [No. 9] BC, and Harvard—those are the cream of the crop teams right there,” Schuler said.

The Crimson also sits at sixth in the Pairwise Rankings, which formulaically mimic the selection criteria used to determine the eight-team NCAA Tournament field. Those metrics seemingly put Harvard in comfortable position to qualify for the Frozen Eight in early March.

But first the Crimson has to take care of business on the back end of its conference schedule. Harvard is currently tied for second in the ECAC, with just a pair of games remaining on the league docket. Unless the team’s cohabitant in the runner-up position, St. Lawrence, falters this weekend against conference softies Union and RPI, the Crimson will likely assume the third seed for the ECAC Tournament, which begins Feb. 23 at home sites. The Saints own the tiebreaker over Harvard by virtue of their two head-to-head wins.

The Crimson needs just one point out of its weekend matchups at Bright Hockey Center with Yale and Brown to avoid the possibility of a fourth-place finish. In the event of a three seed, Harvard would host either Yale or Clarkson in a quarterfinal best-of-three series. Dartmouth, as the league’s regular-season champ, will host the conference tourney’s final rounds, March 3-4.

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