Cahow’s Overtime Winner Saves Harvard, Secures ECAC Title

It wasn’t easy, but the No. 1 Harvard women’s hockey team’s remarkable run through the ECAC came to an exciting conclusion yesterday in the final round of the conference tournament.

The Crimson (31-1-0) defeated St. Lawrence (28-9-1) by a score of 3-2 in an overtime thriller at the Bright Hockey Center, winning the ECAC Championship.

Harvard appeared to have the title wrapped up 2:54 into the extra period when junior Katie Vaughn’s slapshot hit the back of the net. But the referees called the goal back, saying that the puck was deflected in by an illegal high stick.

Not willing to let victory elude the Crimson a second time, tri-captain Caitlin Cahow took matters into her own hands. Cahow dashed across the length of the ice, weaving through traffic along the way and launched a shot past St. Lawrence goalie Meghan Guckian to win the game for Harvard.

“Obviously it was frustrating to have the goal called back, but you can’t really control those things,” Cahow said. “It just got me good and motivated to make something happen. I wasn’t initially looking to make a big rush up the ice, but the sea sort of parted in front of me.”

On a Crimson team full of dynamic scoring threats, opposing teams often overlook Cahow, a defenseman. As she has done throughout the season, Cahow made the Saints pay for the blunder yesterday.

“I think the tendency is to focus on high-scoring forward players and I think St. Lawrence was looking to take out our top forwards like [juniors Jenny Brine] and Sarah Vaillancourt,” Cahow said. “I was able to see daylight at the end of the tunnel. I just took it and was looking actually to get a rebound, but it went in the back of the net so I’ll take it.”

Harvard was undefeated in the ECAC this year, plowing through the regular season with a 22-0-0 record before sweeping its opponents the conference playoffs. The ECAC title is the Crimson’s fifth and its first since 2005.

Just as in Harvard’s semifinal matchup with Clarkson on Saturday, neither team was able to score early on yesterday, as the squads were evenly balanced in the first period. Both teams threatened the net, but Guckian and Crimson sophomore goalie Christina Kessler withstood the pressure to keep the score at 0-0.

“That’s what these kinds of games are probably going to be like,” Stone said. “It’s wonderful if you can get out and get ahead early, but in some ways it settles you in because you know that it’s going to be a great battle and it helps you stay focused.”

Harvard finally broke through for a goal 6:38 into the second frame. After the Crimson failed to convert on its first power-play opportunity, freshman Liza Ryabkina slammed a hard shot home from the blueline for her 10th goal of the season and second of the weekend.

St. Lawrence quickly brought the game back to a tie just under six minutes later when a Carson Duggan shot drew Kessler to the left side of the net and left an opening. An opportunistic Chelsea Grills gathered the rebound and put the puck away to even the score at 1-1.

Harvard reclaimed the lead in the third period, when a knuckling shot by Brine deflected off Guckian’s stick before landing in the net.

“On the bench we were just saying let’s get lots of shots out there,” Brine said. “You never know what’s going to go in.”

The score was Brine’s 17th of the season.

With victory only minutes away, the Crimson defense let up just enough for the Saints to once again tie the game late in the third after Marianna Locke one-timed a rebound past Kessler and sent the game into extra minutes.

“We learned a really good lesson that you can’t back off,” Stone said. “You gotta stay on your toes. You need to get out of the zone and pressure the puck and not sit back. That’s when bad bounces, bad things happen in hockey.”

Harvard came out more intense in overtime. The resilient Crimson squad remained confident after what would have been the game-winning goal was taken away from it, coming right back seconds later to score once again.

“We really came out of the locker room into overtime ready to win the game and not sit back and wait and see what happened,” Stone said. “We were going after it and that’s the kind of attitude you need to have to be successful in the playoffs.”

Harvard now advances to the NCAA Tournament as the No. 1 seed, facing Dartmouth in the first round at Bright on March 15. The puck will drop at 2 p.m. The Crimson has beaten the Big Green by scores of 2-1 and 4-0 this season.

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