Women's Hockey Splits N.Y. Road Trip

The remarkable thing about reunions between friends is how little time changes their friendship. While the No. 10 Harvard women’s hockey team’s reunions with No. 2 Cornell and Colgate may not have been friendly, it seems that little has changed about the Crimson’s relationships with the two squads. Once again, Harvard (2-1-1, 2-1-1 ECAC) found itself in between the two teams, falling to the Big Red (6-1-0, 4-0-0), 3-0, and topping the Raiders (3-7-0, 1-3-0), 3-1.

“I think [the weekend] went pretty well,” tri-captain Kate Buesser said. “We got two out of four points—obviously our goal is to get four points. We played a very good team in Cornell and an up-and-coming team in Colgate. Overall, it was an improving weekend.”

HARVARD 3, COLGATE 1

The Crimson didn’t register its first goal of the weekend until the second period against the Raiders. But by the end of Saturday’s game, Harvard started looking like its old self again, scoring once in the second period and twice in the third to rally from an early deficit in Hamilton, N.Y.

Taking advantage of a slow start by the Crimson, Colgate sophomore Jenna Klynstra slammed the puck past Harvard sophomore goaltender Laura Bellamy 12:33 into the game.

It was the third power-play goal the Crimson had allowed in the two-day stretch.

And for 20 minutes of ice time, it looked like Harvard might be heading home empty-handed.

But midway through the second period, Buesser took the game into her own hands, sending the puck past Raiders netminder Kimberly Sass to even the score.

“I think the first period we didn’t come out as strong as we wanted to,” said sophomore Jillian Dempsey, who assisted on the play. “I was really proud of how we turned that around, instead of just rolling over...we picked it up, we got more aggressive, we put up goals on the board.”

In the second and third periods, the Crimson dominated the puck, outshooting Colgate in each frame. Five minutes into the third period, Harvard finally took the lead when rookie Kalley Armstrong knocked a rebound into the cage. Armstrong was assisted by classmate Marissa Gedman and senior Ashley Wheeler on the first goal of her collegiate career.

Five minutes later, tri-captain Leanna Coskren added an insurance goal to put the Crimson up by two in a period in which Harvard outshot the Raiders, 13-2.

“I think it has a lot to do with preparation,” Buesser said. “We spend a lot of time getting ready for the third period both physically and mentally. Coach always says the first thing to go when we’re tired is our [mental game]. She’s done a good job making sure we keep sharp by working on our conditioning.”

CORNELL 3, HARVARD 0

Five is greater than four.

On Friday night, the difference between the two nationally ranked teams was a simple case of math: the Big Red skaters had seven power play opportunities to score and capitalized on two man-up chances, while the Crimson was shut out in two power-play chances.

“We shot ourselves in the foot by having too many penalties,” Buesser said. “You can’t do that. We know they’re very skilled on the power play. We need to play our game and not give them chances like that.”

Cornell—which was playing without star forwards Rebecca Johnston and Brianne Jenner, both of whom were absent due to Canadian national team commitments—didn’t waste time taking advantage of Harvard’s penalties. On its first power play of the game, Big Red senior Hayley Hughes sent the puck past Bellamy for what would prove to be the game-winner.

“It was a pretty back and forth game pretty much into the first goal,” Buesser said. “We were in their zone all over them...After they got on the board, they were able to tighten up defensively.”

And in the second frame, Cornell finally found its way past the Crimson at full strength, when senior Amber Overguard scored on a Hughes assist in the second period. Hughes picked up her third point of the evening five minutes later, assisting on Lauriane Rougeau’s power-play tally to secure a three-goal lead with 23 minutes of ice time remaining.

But from that point on, it was Harvard that dominated play. While it had nothing to show for its efforts, the Crimson did manage to outshoot the Big Red, 11-5, in the final frame.

“We were all over them,” Dempsey said. “It was kind of frustrating, [because] we didn’t feel that we deserved to lose because of how we played. We played physical, we played aggressive.”

—Staff writer Christina C. McClintock can be reached at ccmcclin@fas.harvard.edu.