Ryabkina’s Late Goal Gives Women’s Hockey Opening Tie

There were 14 seconds on the clock when tri-captain Liza Ryabkina launched a laser of a shot from the left circle. And when the puck found the back of the net, Bright Hockey Center erupted in celebration.

But what felt like a game-winner was just a shot that let the No. 9 Harvard women’s hockey team escape with a tie in a game that should have been a win.

The Crimson slipped up in its season opener on Friday night, fighting back to a 3-3 tie with conference rival Yale (0-2-2, 0-1-1 ECAC).

“I felt that we shouldn’t have been in that position,” Ryabkina said of her last-second goal. “It felt great, but at the same time, we really wanted to win this game, so we were a little bit disappointed.”

Despite getting off more than three times as many shots as the Bulldogs, Harvard’s offense struggled to find the back of the net while the defense had trouble shutting down Yale’s few quality chances.

The Crimson got off to a strong start, putting six shots on goal before the Bulldogs could muster one. And when Yale goaltender Jackee Snikeris left the game eight minutes in with an injury—putting untested sophomore Erin Callahan in the cage—it seemed that Harvard had caught a break.

“We put a lot of pressure on them, and they did a really good job,” Crimson coach Katey Stone said. “Their goaltender did a great job stepping in—sometimes that infuses a lot of energy.”

And the Bulldogs channeled that energy towards getting on the scoreboard first.

On a power play generated by tri-captain Kate Buesser’s interference penalty, Yale senior Bray Ketchum fed a pass to rookie Jackie Raines, who cut across the ice and beat sophomore netminder Laura Bellamy on a shot from the right circle.

The Bulldogs’ first lead didn’t last long. Just over two minutes later, freshman Marissa Gedman hit senior Katharine Chute in transition. The winger juked past a few defenders before flicking the puck just inside the left post to knot the score at one.

Yale stormed back with 2:35 to play in the first with another power-play goal. Once again, the freshmen got it done for the Bulldogs, with Jennifer Lawrence finding the right side of the net off a pass from Aurora Kennedy.

Forty seconds later, sophomore Jillian Dempsey received a game misconduct penalty after laying a massive hit on Heather Grant from behind. Suddenly, Harvard was facing five straight minutes of penalty kill with one of its top forwards in the locker room.

“It was tough to lose Dempsey, but I thought we weathered that storm really well,” Stone said. “We made some adjustments, which is a testament to our depth.”

The defense tightened up during the kill, holding Yale scoreless despite a few good looks in front of the net early in the second period. Harvard then got its own opportunities on offense with a pair of long 5-on-3 advantages.

Though it failed to capitalize on the first, Ryabkina didn’t let the second chance slip away.

Buesser played the puck up from the corner to Gedman, who sent in a shot from the blue line. Ryabkina tipped the shot past Callahan, tying the score once again.

Gedman’s two assists marked her first career collegiate points.

“She played well—she’s tough, she’s a winner,” Stone said of Gedman. “She knows how to do it. She wants to make things happen, [and] she has a great feel for the game.”

The Crimson came out strong to start the third period, shutting the Bulldogs down on a power-play chance and limiting Yale to just four shots in the frame. But one of those four put the Bulldogs on top again.

With just over nine minutes left in regulation, a series of Bulldog shots forced Bellamy to sprawl onto the ice. Though the sophomore stopped the initial barrage, Alyssa Zupon was finally able to slip one past her to make the score 3-2.

Harvard picked up its play in the final minutes of the period, but Yale managed to hold off the onslaught until the final seconds. Grant was sent to the box for bodychecking with 1:52 to play, and Stone pulled Bellamy with 40 seconds on the clock to give her squad a 6-on-4 advantage.

After sophomore Josephine Pucci clanged a shot off the crossbar, the Crimson offense regrouped. Tri-captain Leanna Coskren set up Ryabkina high in the left circle, and Ryabkina’s slapshot was dead on.

“We’re going to ride the seniors and expect a lot from them,” Stone said. “They’re ready to go, and they know how things have been done in the past, and you’re going to see that all year.”

Although Harvard dominated play in overtime, getting off four shots to the Bulldogs’ zero, it couldn’t capitalize on a power play and the game ended in a 3-3 deadlock.

Callahan—who had played just 20 minutes total last season—finished with 32 saves.

The game also marked Joakim Flygh’s return to Bright. Flygh, an assistant with the Crimson for the last three seasons, was named Yale’s head coach in late July.

But though Flygh came close to earning a major upset in his first conference game as head coach, Harvard’s depth proved to be too much in the end.

“Like I just said to the kids, it took a lot of character to come back,” Stone said. “It was a great hockey game, and again, it was exciting that we were able to tie it up. But I think I would have liked to see us strike first and get after it instead of playing catch-up all the time.”

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