Women's Hockey Falls in Beanpot Opener

In a game full of big plays and even bigger stops, the No. 5 Harvard women’s hockey team went up against No. 2 Boston College in the first round of the 35th Annual Beanpot Tournament.

“Massive defensive zone breakdowns in the third period killed us,” Crimson coach Katey Stone said. “Otherwise, it was a pretty good game. We did a lot of things really well.”

The final of three third period goals proved to be the difference as Harvard fell at Northeastern’s Matthews Arena by a final score of 2-1.

“When we needed to we didn’t take care of our own end,” Stone said. “It cost us big. You can’t afford that against good teams.”

The decisive goal came off the stick of Taylor Wasylk, who was able to get behind the defense and knock it through freshman goaltender Emerance Maschmeyer’s pads.

“I saw an opening and went to the net,” Wasylk said. “Lexi [Bender] made an awesome play and hit me. I didn’t even know it was coming. It just kind of hit my stick and went in.”

Despite chances in the first two periods, the Crimson was unable to put one in the net.

Co-captain Jillian Dempsey came close, though, at the end of both periods. With less than 60 seconds left in the first, Dempsey shot a high attempt at net that was put aside by Eagles goaltender Corrine Boyles.

At the end of the second, a leading pass found a streaking Dempsey who, all alone, couldn’t slide it past Boyles. Boyles finished with 40 saves on the night.

On the other end on the ice, Maschmeyer had a career high 34 saves of her own. Both goalies had shutouts going well into the third.

Maschmeyer’s previous two games against ranked opponents, No. 2 Cornell and No. 9 Northeastern, ended in a pair of 3-1 victories.

The first converted opportunity in Tuesday’s contest came when junior forward Gina McDonald collected a puck behind the goal and sent it along to freshman forward Mary Parker, who was able to collect her own rebound and send it barreling into the back of the net. The goal was Parker’s fourth of the season.

Less than three minutes later, Boston College answered with some pretty passing of its own and put Dana Trivigno in the perfect position to slap the puck over Maschmeyer’s pads.

The night concluded Harvard’s longest scoring drought of the year. Going back to the last two periods of Friday’s game against Dartmouth, the squad went four frames without punching one past an opposing goaltender.

Despite amassing a combined nine shots, the Crimson failed to convert on three power play opportunities.

In the second, Parker sent one across the lip of the goal to set up sophomore forward Hilary Crowe, who was then stoned by an acrobatic right pad save.

The team’s next chance came as the result of a hooking infraction. During the man-advantage, Harvard rattled off five shots including a misdirection behind the net that almost got past Boyles.

“We had some good looks on our power play,” Stone said. “[Boyles] played very well in front of them.”

On the other end, the Crimson denied what would have been a strength-on-strength match-up by not conceding a penalty.

Harvard leads the country on the penalty kill, while the Eagles hold the nation’s second best power play.

Both squads were disciplined in their shooting lanes. The Crimson managed 14 blocked shots to Boston College’s 11, while Harvard had a harder time putting the puck on target, sailing a total of 18 shots wide.

Despite leading all skaters with nine shots, Dempsey finished with no goals or assists. The game was only the third of the season in which Dempsey failed to earn a point.

“I think we’ll think about this until midnight and we’ll take all the good stuff with us,” Dempsey said. “In the end, we’re going to have to get more gritty and grind those games out.”

Looking forward, the team plays Yale and Brown at home this weekend before meeting the loser of Boston University and Northeastern in the consolation game.

“From here on out you’re going to see us tougher in those situations,” Dempsey said. “We’re going to be tough to play against.”

—Staff writer Daniel A. Grafstein can be reached at dgrafstein@college.harvard.edu.