Crimson Downs Bobcats in Blowout

Since the start of team practices, the Harvard women’s hockey team has consistently focused on bouncing back. It was no wonder then, that after suffering a 2-1 loss to Princeton Saturday night, the Crimson attacked rival Quinnipiac on Sunday with a vengeance.

While the Bobcats took the first point 1:47 into the game, Harvard was loathe to suffer another loss. Scoring the next six goals, the Crimson dominated its conference rival, 7-2, at the final buzzer.

“We responded with a sense of urgency today,” Harvard head coach Katey Stone said. “We wanted to respond from yesterday.”

The pivotal moment that best epitomized the Crimson’s desire to attack came in the second period, when Harvard “responded” three times in a span of two minutes.

“We’ve got some weapons, and we’ve just got to get kids believing in themselves and let the puck do the work,” Stone said. “That’s what happened.”

Crimson junior Katharine Chute started the trifecta a little over nine minutes into the second half off a pass from senior Anna McDonald to give Harvard a 4-1 lead. Only 47 seconds later, freshman Kaitlin Spurling took a tally of her own.

Freshman Jillian Dempsey scored the last Crimson goal of the period, and her second of the game, with 11:29 into the third. Dempsey’s first goal, second on the season, came four minutes into the match.

“It felt amazing,” Dempsey said of her two goals. “[Kate] Buesser set me up beautifully on one of those goals, and you know Leanna [Coskren] was just putting the puck in the net. It was all them.”

After Dempsey scored the first Harvard goal, senior Randi Griffin followed it up with one of her own at 11:11 into play, putting the Crimson up, 2-1. Coskren, a junior, then placed a pass from Dempsey behind Bobcats goalkeeper Victoria Vigilanti.

“[After Saturday night], we realized what we did wrong, and we had to correct it,” Harvard co-captain Kathryn Farni said. “Today we figured it out that when they score, we need to answer right back.”

After Chute, Spurling and Dempsey’s goals in the second period, Quinnipiac freshman Breann Julius took the initiative to stop a complete Harvard domination.

With Crimson sophomore Alisa Baumgartner in the box, Julius took advantage of a power play to make the score 6-2.

“I was disappointed about the power play goal that they scored because we are trying to be one of the best teams on the penalty kill,” Stone said. “But again, it’s a work in progress, and I think the good thing is that we have a lot of people killing penalties and we are going to get better at it.”

The third period began with continuous back-and-forth play as the Crimson defense stopped seven Bobcat attempts. With Harvard racking up two of its five penalties for the game, it was not until the final seven minutes that Buesser scored the last goal of the contest, giving the Crimson a definitive five-goal lead going into the final minutes.

Throughout the contest, Harvard outshot the Bobcats, 28-18, scoring one on a power play and one off of a faceoff. The Crimson won 42 faceoffs, compared to Quinnipiac’s 16, giving Harvard more time with the puck.

“We are getting better, that’s the key,” Stone said. “We just need to make sure we are ready to play whenever games come around.”

As the team prepares to take on No. 4 New Hampshire on Wednesday, Stone emphasized the Harvard’s need for simple play and confidence.

“We know what we need to do, we just need to go out there and do it,” Farni agreed. “We know we are fast enough to beat anyone. We know we can keep up with any team. We just need to have confidence and capitalize on our chances.”

For now, the team can revel in its ability to score seven goals, the most for the program since last year’s Beanpot, when Harvard scored eight against Boston University.

“We were raring to go,” Dempsey said. “We just came out flying. [We are] looking forward to Wednesday, and hopefully we can do the same thing.”

—Staff writer Alex Sopko can be reached at sopko@fas.harvard.edu.