Pair of Late Goals Gives Women's Hockey A Win

For the first two periods, it seemed as though the University of Connecticut would become Harvard women’s hockey’s first loss since the first week of its 2013-14 campaign. But it only took twenty seconds for that to change.

The No. 4/5 Crimson (11-1-2, 7-1-1 ECAC) faced off against the Huskies (4-13-2, 1-4-1 Hockey East) in the Freitas Ice Forum, finishing with a 2-1 victory on Tuesday night. While Harvard had a total of 33 attempts on goal compared to UConn’s 25, the team was unable to convert any shots until the third period.

“Overall we were happy with how we finished the game,” junior forward Hillary Crowe said. “However, we have a lot to take from this game, especially coming out with more fire and playing strong for 60 minutes.”

Over 14 minutes into the third period, senior defenseman Elizabeth Parker converted an assist from her sister, sophomore forward Mary Parker, by finding the back of the net off of a rebound despite overcrowding in front of the goal.

“Mary and Elizabeth both played really well,” interim head coach Maura Crowell said. “Especially Elizabeth as a senior kind of was feeling it. She had a great game and to put that goal away for us was huge. The momentum shifts, and the release after playing nearly 60 minutes of hockey down a goal was awesome.”

The goal put the Crimson on the scoreboard, tying the game 1-1 after an early net by the Huskies’ junior forward Kayla Campero put UConn up. Just 11 minutes into the first period, Campero managed to slap her shot past freshman goaltender Brianna Liang off an assist from teammates Michela Cava and Emily Snodgrass to give the Huskies an advantage it would maintain for the majority of the game.

“I think everybody was doing what [he or she] thought they should do to win the game,” Crowell said. “It was just a hard game. It was a gutsy win in the end. We weren’t sure what was going to happen, but the energy on the bench was really great through, and they really believed they could win this game.”

While on paper Connecticut’s rank in nowhere near Harvard’s this season, the Huskies’ style of play proved difficult for the Crimson to counter.

“[UConn] is a tough place to go,” Crowell said. “The environment is dead, there’s three people in the stands, there’s no energy in the building, and they’re a big, kind of slow, type of team and it really plays more to their favor. It felt like we were on a power play the whole time. We had the puck in their zone a lot, but they just sit around and clog up the slot, so it’s tough.”

Despite an early lead, Parker’s goal to tie the game turned the tides in Harvard’s favor for the rest of the period. Twenty seconds after her goal, junior defenseman Sarah Edney managed to take the extended Harvard offensive run and convert it to a goal to give the Crimson the lead.

“Whenever we’re down a goal in the end we do take some liberties,” Crowell said. “We had the [defense] jump in quite a bit and we put more pressure on the other team, but as the pressure builds we answered the bell. In general it wasn’t a crazy change of attack, it was just continually knocking at the door and finally getting a couple to go through and not giving up and staying determined to find that open space.”

Both teams went 0 for 3 power plays, and Harvard won 24 face-offs compared to UConn’s 22. Both freshman Sydney Daniels and sophomore Mary Parker had attempts that just missed the net in the first half, and Parker led the team with eight shots on net.

“I knew we hadn’t played our best against Northeastern,” Crowe said. “We wanted to get back to Harvard Hockey, and play a simple and smart game and out work our opponent all over the ice.”

The Crimson had a hard time trying to slip past the Huskies’ defense until the last five minutes of the game. While Liang had 24 saves, UConn goaltender Elaine Chuli made 31 saves.

“[We] need to come out with intensity right away and maintain that,” Crowe said. “We need to do what we do best…for a full 60 minutes.”