Victory Over Cornell Completes Perfect League Season for Crimson

You can add another item to the No. 1 Harvard women’s hockey team’s list of accomplishments—a perfect ECAC season. With its 4-2 win over Cornell (12-15-1, 9-11-1 ECAC) Saturday in Ithaca, N.Y., the Crimson (26-1-0, 22-0-0 ECAC) became just the second team in history, and the first in 11 years, to go unbeaten in the conference.

“A lot of really good things happened, a lot of great plays, we switched our lines up and got some great chemistry,” Harvard coach Katey Stone said. “It’s certainly a great accomplishment, going undefeated in the league.”

“It’s pretty impressive and it shows how all our work has paid off,” junior Sarah Vaillancourt added. “That’s the way to do it—to work really hard in every game. It’s not just the talent that got us here.”

Vaillancourt and Kati Vaughn paced the team offensively, scoring two goals apiece, and classmate Jenny Brine added two assists. Harvard also converted three of its seven power-play opportunities.

The Crimson got things started seven minutes into the game when the team found itself with a 5-on-3 advantage. Harvard set itself up in the Big Red zone, getting a pass to Vaughn who one-timed it past Cornell goaltender Jenny Niesluchowski into the top right corner of the net.

Brine and Vaillancourt—who recorded her 100th career assist on the play—assisted Vaughn.

Although the Crimson would launch 17 shots on goal in the first period alone against just four for the Big Red, Harvard was unable to build on its lead before the first intermission.

Junior Sarah Wilson—part of the Crimson’s recently reshuffled first line—got a good opportunity a minute and a half before the break, but her shot soared just over the net.

Harvard came back strong in the second, adding its only even-strength goal of the night eight minutes into the period. Vaillancourt was credited with the score, which bounced off the skate of a Cornell defender and into the net. Brine nabbed her second assist of the night on the play.

The Big Red’s Liz Zorn was called for a five-minute major penalty at 12:36, giving the Crimson an extended power-play opportunity that it did not squander.

Vaughn—assisted by sophomore Kathryn Farni—netted her second goal of the game at 15:01 on a shot from the blue line. It was the first multi-goal game of the defenseman’s career.

“We have five different weapons on that power play, and we did a nice job of finding the open player,” Stone said. “Kati had two really good shots, which was great, and we got a lot of good looks at the net.”

Less than a minute later, Vaillancourt found the back of the net for the team-leading 21st time this season. She took a pass from senior tri-captain Caitlin Cahow and put it past Niesluchowski into the left side of the goal to put Harvard up, 4-0.

Cornell was finally able to find its offensive groove in the third period, cutting the Crimson’s lead in half.

“We broke down a little bit in the third period,” Vaillancourt said. “It’s been a long season, but I think we should have done much better.”

The Big Red struck first on a 5-on-3 advantage, gained after Farni joined freshman Katharine Chute in the penalty box a minute into the third period.

Cornell’s Amber Moore banked a shot off the post to beat Harvard goalie Christina Kessler and put her team on the board at 1:34.

Big Red standout Rebecca Johnston scored the game’s final goal with seven minutes remaining to bring the score to 4-2.

“They scored an even-strength goal on us, which Colgate did as well,” Cahow said. “We’re really just going back to the drawing board and making sure we’re maintaining focus for 60 minutes.”

Despite being outshot, 14-7, in the final period, the Crimson held on for the win behind Kessler’s 21 saves to preserve its perfect league record and 16-game winning streak heading into the playoffs.

When the ECAC best-of-three quarterfinals begin on Friday night, Harvard will face off against Cornell.

“We get to host the ECAC tournament, which is a huge plus,” Cahow said. “There’s a confidence boost knowing that we can play any of these teams. But that aside, it’s a new season, and everyone is 0-0. It’s going to be our task to rise to the occasion.”

“It’s a good time to enjoy it,” Stone added. “Once Monday comes along we’re going get ourselves ready for the next season.”

—Staff writer Kate Leist can be reached at kdleist@fas.harvard.edu.