Women's Hockey Remains Undefeated in ECAC

The No. 3 Harvard women’s hockey team picked up wins against Clarkson and No. 7 St. Lawrence in its final two games before a two-week break.

In addition to having to travel six hours by bus in the middle of reading period, the Crimson (16-1-0, 13-0-0 ECAC) was forced to deal with another challenge, the absence of head coach Katey Stone.

“The middle leg of the year is tough because everyone’s stressed about exams and papers and stuff, and plus Coach was gone in Calgary coaching the U-18 National team,” tri-captain Caitlin Cahow said.

Stone led the U.S. National Under-18 team to its first-ever gold medal with a 5-2 win over Team Canada in the final of the IIHF World Championships.

Despite the difficulties, Harvard skated to a 2-0 victory against the Saints (14-7-0, 7-2-0) before dispatching the Golden Knights (14-5-2, 5-4-0), 3-1.

The Crimson will face Dartmouth after a two-week exam break on Jan. 27 at the Bright Hockey Center.

HARVARD 3, CLARKSON 1

The Crimson overcame a rough opening period in which it was outshot, 10-4, to unleash a barrage of shots—and goals—on the Clarkson defense.

“It was our fifth game in nine days, so we were pretty sloppy in the first half, but the kids picked up their level of play,” said assistant coach Joakim Flygh, who took over head coaching responsibilities for the weekend.

Junior forward Sarah Vaillancourt opened up the scoring at 8:21 of the second period. Vaillancourt took the puck from the left corner and skated it out to the center of the ice before scoring from point-blank range.

“What was huge was that there was so much team spirit [after the first period] because we had just all talked about what we needed to do and what we needed to change,” Vaillancourt said.

However, the Golden Knights were able to equalize less than two minutes later on a 5-on-3 power play. The goal was the only one sophomore Christina Kessler has allowed since Harvard’s 4-1 victory over Cornell last week. Since then, the Crimson has outscored its opponents, 16-1.

“The defense played really well this weekend,” Flygh said. “Our third line also did well and scored two big goals this weekend.”

One of those big goals came at 12:20 in the second period, when sophomore forward Randi Griffin gave Harvard the lead once again.

The Crimson continued to torment the Golden Knights’ defense until the very end of the second period. With only 0.2 seconds left on the clock, junior forward Sarah Wilson received a pass from Vaillancourt before firing the puck into the back of the net to give Harvard a two-goal advantage.

Although the teams traded shots in the third period, the Crimson was able to hold onto the lead for the rest of the game.

HARVARD 2, ST. LAWRENCE 0

The Crimson’s tight defensive play allowed the squad to shut out the country’s top-ranked offense.

“You need to have a perfect defense [to have a shutout],” Vaillancourt said. “Our defense has been working so hard in practices, and it’s just so beautiful to see them play.”

“St. Lawrence is a perpetual rival for us,” Cahow added. “We just fought through the game, and we held the No. 1 offense in the country to no goals. The play of our goalkeeper was just phenomenal.”

The shutout against St. Lawrence marked Kessler’s seventh of the season. That tied the Harvard mark of Ali Boe ’06, who set the record in the 2003-04 season, for the most shutouts in a single season.

At 2:43 in the first period, sophomore forward Anna McDonald found the back of the net when her shot bounced off of the stick of Saints goaltender Meaghan Guckian and into the net.

The Crimson’s early lead inspired the Saints’ attack, and Harvard was outshot, 11-4, in the second period.

Even so, Griffin was able to increase the Crimson’s advantage to two at 14:14 in the second period when she scored her first goal of the season. She received the puck and scored after a breakaway by freshman Deborah Conway.

“It was a beautiful, beautiful play,” Cahow said. “Deb [Conway] made a nifty play around defenseman Annie Gay, one of the best defenseman in the country. It was top-notch in terms of skill and effort.”

—Staff writer Lucy D. Chen can be reached at lucychen@fas.harvard.edu.