Women's Ice Hockey Beats Princeton, Quinnipiac

With about a minute remaining in the game on Saturday, the No. 10 Harvard women’s ice hockey team was left to defend its one-goal advantage against then-undefeated Quinnipiac on the penalty kill.

After pulling senior goaltender Chelsea Laden in one last effort to send the game into overtime, the Bobcats held a six-on-four edge for the final 64 seconds.

But the Crimson defense, anchored by junior goaltender Emerance Maschmeyer, held off the Quinnipiac attack in the closing stages of the contest, going on to upset the No. 4 team in the nation, 2-1.

“We managed [the power play] really well, and that just gives us confidence for the future,” Harvard coach Katey Stone said. “Under a minute put a lot of pressure on our kids but they weathered the storm and executed.”

The win closed a home pair for the Crimson (6-2-2, 5-1-1 ECAC) this weekend at the Bright-Landry Hockey Center, as Harvard collected two conference victories over both the Bobcats (13-1-3, 6-1-2) and Princeton (6-7-1, 4-4-1).

HARVARD 2, QUINNIPIAC 1

Heading into its fourth contest of the season against a ranked opponent, Harvard entered Saturday confident after rattling off its third consecutive win against Princeton.

“We knew we were going to have a strong matchup and dogfight with Quinnipiac,” Stone said. “But it’s really about us playing our game, and we’ve been back at that for about a week and a half now doing a really good job of playing some Harvard hockey.”

A fast, aggressive, and offensive-minded Bobcats team put the Crimson in defensive mode at the start of the game. Quinnipiac struck first, as junior defenseman Lindsey West put the puck past Maschmeyer eight minutes into the first period.

Harvard picked up the pace after West’s goal, eventually outshooting Quinnipiac 22-15 over the contest. Just like the night before, the Crimson got on the board with a score in the final seconds of the first period.

On the team’s first power play of the game, senior forward Lyndsey Fry scored off an assist from junior forward Miye D’Oench. The goal was the first of the season for the senior and the third consecutive success for Harvard on the man advantage.

“I think it was a good momentum shift,” Fry said. “Being on a power play is a good momentum shift in general, and then to be able to put a goal in, especially towards the end of the period, I think helped get us going.”

The Crimson carried that momentum into the second period, holding Quinnipiac without a shot attempt for much of the frame.

The game would remain tied, however, until midway through the third period, when Harvard pulled ahead with a goal from freshman forward Haley Mullins, who redirected a shot on target from freshman forward Karly Heffernan.

Maschmeyer made 14 saves on the night, stopping scoring chances on several scrambles inside the crease in the last few minutes of the game with six Bobcats on the ice and her team down a man.

“We work a lot on our penalty kill,” Fry said. “We take a lot of pride in our penalty kill. We’re all about defense first…. Being big, blocking shots, getting them out of the zone—that’s huge for us.”

With the win, Harvard ends 2014 on a four-game win streak—a sharp turnaround from its previous four-game winless streak.

“We have a lot to work on,” Stone said. “We’re starting to work harder individually and collectively, and that’s paid dividends for us.”

HARVARD 3, PRINCETON 0

The Crimson extended Princeton’s losing streak to six games on Friday night with a win over the Tigers. Sophomore Briana Laing recorded 27 saves in the shutout—her first of the season.

The first goal of the game came off Harvard’s sole power play of the night, as sophomore forward Sydney Daniels capitalized on the opportunity. Freshman forward Lexie Laing quickly got the puck up the ice to senior defenseman Sarah Edney, who then set up Daniels for the goal from a distance.

Entering the second period down a goal, the Tigers stepped up their offense. The Princeton attack rattled off 11 shots—seven more than it had in the first period. But the Crimson halted the Tigers’ momentum late in the second frame when sophomore defender Briana Mastel assisted on a goal from Heffernan to put the team up by two goals.

Princeton conceded another goal early in the third period, when junior forward Mary Parker nudged a shot past Princeton goaltender Kimberly Newell off a misdirected shot from junior defenseman Michelle Picard. The win marks Harvard’s second shutout of the season and its first in conference play.