Stone Breaks All-Time Wins Mark as Women's Hockey Tops Princeton

For the Harvard women’s hockey team, Friday night’s win was doubly important. Not only did it get the Crimson one step closer to the NCAA Tournament, but it also put Harvard coach Katey Stone one step closer to the top of her profession.

The No. 4 Crimson (20-6-5) scored four goals in the opening 15 minutes of play to cruise to a 5-1 playoff victory over Princeton (13-14-4) at Bright Hockey Center—the 338th career win for Stone, who became the all-time winningest coach in NCAA women’s hockey history.

“It’s great,” junior Kate Buesser said. “[Stone’s] probably the most competitive of anybody on our team, so it’s good to see her get in front there.”

Stone was honored by athletic director Bob Scalise in a postgame ceremony. The win pushed her one victory ahead of former Colby and Minnesota coach Laura Halldorson for the career lead.

“It means a lot to me,” Stone said. “And for our kids to play well—that was the most important thing. Our kids, they were on tonight, and that makes me very proud.”

Harvard’s quick start ensured that Stone’s big win was never in doubt.

After the Tigers were whistled for having too many players on the ice just 43 seconds into the contest, the Crimson set up on its power play.

It took nearly the entire two minutes of advantage to break through the Princeton defense, but with five seconds left on the penalty, junior Liza Ryabkina one-timed a pass from freshman Kelsey Romatoski past Tiger goaltender Rachel Weber.

Once Harvard got rolling, it couldn’t be stopped.

Five minutes later, senior Randi Griffin continued her recent offensive tear, scooping up a loose puck and putting a shot just past Weber’s extended leg for the 2-0 lead.

“It’s just a matter of, I think, working hard,” Griffin said. “I don’t know if it’s confidence or what, maybe just luck—you roll the dice enough times, they start going in.”

Ryabkina pushed the lead to 3-0 less than a minute later. Weber reached out to try to smother a shot from freshman Jillian Dempsey, but couldn’t get a glove on it. Ryabkina chipped the shot over the flattened Weber to light the lamp again.

All three goals came before Princeton got a shot on net.

“That looked like the US-Finland game earlier today,” Stone said. “That’s how you start, and that’s what you’ve got to do. You’ve got to break the opponent’s spirit in playoff hockey.”

The Crimson made it 4-0 with five minutes to play in the first period. Just after Harvard had successfully killed off a tripping penalty, Dempsey won a faceoff in the offensive zone. She passed the puck back to Buesser, whose shot from the high slot soared through traffic and into the net.

The top line of Ryabkina, Dempsey, and Buesser combined for six points, 13 shots, and a +6 rating on the night.

“Jillian’s a really feisty player and kind of gets in there and has great hands,” Buesser said. “And Liza’s just powerful, she’s got a lot of speed. So I think just the ability we have to pass, and how we see each other on the ice, is just really fun.”

Princeton got one back on a 5-on-3 power play just before the period ended. With Ryabkina already in the box, Griffin got sent off for hooking with 20.9 seconds on the clock.

Five seconds later, Tiger Laura Martindale put the puck past freshman netminder Laura Bellamy off assists from Sasha Sherry and Paula Romanchuk.

But even that blemish couldn’t take away from Harvard’s dominant first frame.

“I think that really set the tone, and really, we threw them back on their heels right away,” Buesser said. “If we play the way we did the first 15 minutes for the whole game, they don’t stand a chance tomorrow.”

Though the second period was the most balanced—each team put seven shots on net—the Crimson was the only team to capitalize.

At 15:15, freshman Margaret Chute passed the puck up to junior Leanna Coskren, who put a shot through a screen for her seventh goal of the season.

“Our focus has been to pressure them everywhere—we did a much better job of that today,” Stone said. “We changed our forecheck a little bit, and our kids are just, they’re going. There’s no hesitation. Give a team like [Princeton] some time and they’re going to hurt you...so we’re trying to take away as much as we can.”

Harvard came back to dominate the third period of play, outshooting the Tigers, 13-4, in the frame and 38-17 for the game.

“We rolled three lines and weren’t concerned about matchups, and the kids just got it done,” Stone said.

And the Crimson played with the kind of confidence it will need to carry throughout the postseason if it hopes to make noise on the national stage.

“That’s the thing—this team focuses on us,” Buesser said. “We play all these different teams, but it’s just another kid in another jersey. We’re here to see if they can keep up with us, not the other way around.”

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