Women's Hockey Denied ECAC Title

The third time wasn’t the charm for the Harvard women’s hockey team.

Having lost to division rival St. Lawrence twice already this season, the Crimson could not manage a victory during its ECAC semifinals matchup with the Saints on Saturday. No. 5 St. Lawrence (28-6-3) defeated No. 6 Harvard (23-7-2) by a score of 4-3 at Dartmouth’s Thompson Arena in Hanover, N.H.

“Obviously we’re very disappointed,” Crimson coach Katey Stone said.” It was a very good hockey game. My hat’s off to St. Lawrence.”

With 1:49 left in the second period, the Saints scored what would prove to be the winning goal, as center Sabrina Harbec made a nifty pass to sophomore winger Carson Duggan, who put the puck in the back of the net to give her team a 4-2 advantage.

The Crimson responded almost immediately, courtesy of a 5-on-3 opportunity. With 59 seconds remaining in the frame, junior defenseman Caitlin Cahow sent a hard pass across the crease to sophomore winger Sarah Vaillancourt at the far post. Vaillancourt one-timed the puck past St. Lawrence junior goalie Meaghan Guckian to cut the deficit in half.

With the score at 4-3 after only two periods, it appeared that the contest would become an even more high-scoring affair. “At one point I said to my assistants, ‘It’s going to be a shootout at the OK Corral here,’” St. Lawrence coach Paul Flanagan said.

But Vaillacourt’s score would be the last of the game. In the third period, St. Lawrence tightened up on defense and successfully resisted the Harvard’s offensive advances. The Crimson had its best chance to tie the score in the last minute of the game. The puck got loose in front of the Saints net and a scramble ensued. But Guckian was able to get a hold of the puck, making her 20th save of the game and 10th of the period.

After the game, Harvard’s leaders sang the praises of St. Lawrence’s netminder.

“Whenever we play against her,” Crimson co-captain Julie Chu said, “she makes some really big saves.”

“[Guckian] played really well, and staved off a lot of late pressure,” Stone added.

The contest got off to a quick start. At 4:42 into the first period, Harbec and Duggan charged into the Crimson zone, with Harbec in control of the puck. Using Duggan as a decoy, Harbec took it to the net herself for the unassisted goal.

The Crimson answered back on the power play just over two minutes later when sophomore Sarah Wilson picked up a rebound off of senior Katie Johnston’s shot and put it home for the tying goal. The team finished 2-for-6 with the man advantage, while St. Lawrence was 0-for-4 with an extra skater.

But with less than three minutes to go in the period, Harbec struck again, albeit inadvertently. As Harbec tried to center a pass to Duggan, the puck deflected off of Harvard freshman defenseman Cori Bassett’s shin and past sophomore goalie Brittany Martin.

“It was pretty lucky actually,” Harbec said.

“[Harbec] planned that,” Flanagan joked. “She’s been working on that one.”

The Crimson would even the score again, this time on an unassisted wrist shot 4:39 into the second period by senior winger Liza Solley. The Saints would recapture the lead a minute later on a short-handed score by sophomore Alison Domenico, who beat Martin after shaking several Harvard defenders.

The game featured an intriguing individual matchup between star centers Harbec and Chu, the top two scorers in the ECAC. The two have developed a strong friendship off the ice, and feed off of each other’s intensity when they play against each another.

“We compete really hard against each other,” Chu said. “But at the end of the day I think we can appreciate the challenge we pose for each other.”

“We’re laughing before we go on faceoffs because we know it’s going to be a hard one,” Harbec said. “It’s just so much fun to play against a good player like that.”

This time Harbec came out on top of the friendly rivalry, as Chu’s Crimson saw its streak of three straight ECAC titles snapped while the Saints moved on to the championship game against Dartmouth. St. Lawrence went on to drop the final to the Big Green, 7-3.

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