Losing Streak Drops Crimson Under .500

The winless streak continues for the No. 9 Harvard women’s hockey team (4-5-3, 4-2-2 ECAC) after falling, 3-2, to the University of Connecticut (11-6-2, 4-4-0 Hockey East) yesterday afternoon in Storrs, Conn.

“We came out really strong in the first period, and we just had a couple of defensive breakdowns that can be fixed with practice,” sophomore Kate Buesser said. “I don’t think it was a lack of effort, but there are some things that we have to work on.”

The Huskies were all over the Crimson. offensively This put them ahead early on, starting with a goal just two minutes into the game from Dominique Thibault, marking her 100th career point. Husky Jody Sydor got the puck in the power play, taking it straight through the Harvard defense to Thibault, who then slammed it just under junior goaltender Christina Kessler’s skate.

“Defensively, we were inconsistent,” Harvard coach Katey Stone said. “We didn’t play great defense. We allowed UConn to have more time and space to make better decisions.”

“It’s really frustrating,” tri-captain Sarah Vaillancourt said. “We have been playing defense that’s not awful, but every time we seem to make a small stupid mistake, the teams always seem to get by. And they are mistakes that we shouldn’t make.”

Despite the initial setback, Harvard came back to tie the game at 15:38. Senior Sarah Wilson scored her eighth goal of the season, assisted by Vaillancourt.

“I took the puck, stole it from one of the players, and it was a 2-on-1,” Vaillancourt said. “I carried the puck and made a move on the defense and passed it to Wilson and she redirected it right away into the net.”

Harvard came into the second period firing, netting a goal at 2:21 on a power play. Assisted by sophomore Liza Ryabkina and Vaillancourt, Buesser earned the goal that put Harvard ahead.

“There was kind of a scrum in the corner, a battle, and then I picked up the puck and passed it to Liza at the point. Liza took a shot from the blue line, and then Kate Buesser just took the rebound and put it in,” Vaillancourt explained.

But Harvard lost its advantage just minutes later, when Husky hero Thibault nailed her second goal of the match at 5:30, tying the game once more. While the Huskies led 15-11 in shots in the second period, they failed to expand the lead further until the third period.

The final frame brought the Crimson’s best chance to score, with a notable 9-3 lead in shots on goal, but Harvard was disappointed when UConn’s Monique Weber scored the game-winning goal at 7:34, landing the Huskies a fifth consecutive win. The Crimson made a desperate attempt to even the score, pulling Kessler on the power-play to take a 6-on-4 advantage with 1:19 left.

While tri-captain Jenny Brine was able to get a shot on goal, Harvard failed to score. This has become a familiar situation for the Crimson, as it once again outshot its opponent, 31-25, but couldn’t come up with a win.

“It was very disappointing,” Stone said. “UConn played well. They took advantage of their opportunity…and we had multiple chances. Now I just think we need to get our confidence back.”

“We were definitely faster than them, but they played us better as a team overall,” Vaillancourt said. “They were more aggressive. You could tell that they wanted it more.”