Women's Hockey Winless in First Road Double

Riding a pair of wins to open its 2014-2015 campaign, the Harvard women’s ice hockey suffered its first setback of the season.

Kicking off a five-game road stint, the Crimson (2-1-1, 2-1-1 ECAC) couldn’t finish off a win in a pair of overtime contests, settling for a tie on Friday against Clarkson (9-3-1, 4-0-1) and dropping a 5-4 decision against St. Lawrence (6-5-1, 3-2-0) the following evening.

“[It was] obviously disappointing,” junior Miye D’Oench said. “You never want to walk away from a road trip with one point. Especially with two overtime games, we really felt like we were right there.”

ST. LAWRENCE 5, HARVARD 4

Facing a two-goal deficit midway through the second period, the Crimson mounted a strong comeback but could not come up with a win in its 5-4 overtime loss to Saints.

Harvard found itself in a 1-0 hole early off a power play goal by junior forward Jenna Marks. But Crimson co-captain Samantha Reber put Harvard right back in it ten seconds later with a strike of her own to even the score.

Sophomore forward Sydney Daniels added a score to put the Crimson up, 2-1, but St. Lawrence stormed back with three unanswered goals to give the Saints a 4-2 edge heading into the tail end of the second frame.

“We just had some bad bounces at the beginning of the game,” D’Oench said. “[We had] some defensive breakdowns that led to their opportunities. But I thought we put pressure on them from start to finish.”

Despite outshooting St. Lawrence, 13-5, in the second period, the Crimson could only muster one goal from senior Hillary Crowe, who netted her first of the season with four minutes to go in the middle frame to cut into the Saints’ lead.

“We didn’t panic,” Reber said. “We knew we had the ability to come back and hopefully win the game. In general, we just got better and better as the game went on.”

The Crimson continued to press the Saints, outshooting the home team, 8-6, in the final minutes of play. With less than two minutes in regulation, D’Oench scored the equalizer, sending the Crimson into its second overtime period in as many nights.

But Harvard couldn’t find the back of the net in the overtime, as St. Lawrence’s Kayla Raniwsky drilled in the game winner just over a minute into extended time, sending the Crimson home with its first loss of the season.

HARVARD 2, CLARKSON 2

After jumping out to a 2-0 lead, the Crimson settled for a tie in Potsdam, N.Y.

Freshman forward Haley Mullins got Harvard on the board less than 90 seconds into the first frame with an unassisted goal. The Crimson added another when Sydney Daniels scored her second of the season eight minutes into the second period.

But Harvard lost the early momentum with numerous penalty infractions in the second and third frames. The Crimson accumulated 23 minutes in the box, while the Golden Knights accrued just one two-minute infraction.

“We spent over a third of the game killing penalties,” D’Oench said. “It’s hard to get momentum back when you’re doing that. I thought five-on-five we absolutely dominated the game, but sometimes you’re going to get calls that don’t go your way, and you have to figure out a way to win anyways.”

Harvard was outshot by Clarkson, 14-5, in the second frame, as the Crimson played a man down for almost half of the twenty-minute period. Junior goalie Emerance Maschmeyer came up with 25 saves on the night, but could not fend off Golden Knights’ late charge.

Junior forward Olivia Howe found the back of the net with less than thirty seconds in the second frame to bring Clarkson within one heading into the final period. A tripping penalty on Harvard junior Mary Parker gave the Golden Knights a man advantage. Clarkson capitalized on the penalty as junior Renata Fast slid on past Maschmeyer to tie the game at two-all just two minutes into the third period.

The Crimson outshot Clarkson, 3-1, in extra time, but neither side could put one away in the five minutes of overtime play.

“Although we didn’t come out with the wins we wanted, it was a good start to the year,” Reber said. “The things we need to fix are easy for us. It’s a good starting point.”

—Staff writer Brenna R. Nelsen can be reached at brenna.nelsen@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @CrimsonBRN.