Women's Ice Hockey Victorious Against Union, Ties RPI

Looking to climb in the ECAC standings, the Harvard women’s hockey team kicked off a four-game roadtrip in the state of New York, taking on conference foes Rensselaer and Union.

The Crimson (15-9-3, 11-6-3 ECAC) came out of the weekend undefeated, settling for a tie against RPI (10-14-8, 8-8-4) before claiming a 3-0 victory over the Dutchwomen (0-26-6, 0-17-6)

“Obviously you want to walk away with two wins but we walked away with…three out of four points so overall we did pretty good” freshman defenseman Kate Hallett said. “I think we put out a lot of energy this weekend.”

HARVARD 3, UNION 0

In the second game of the weekend, the Harvard first line picked up all seven points of the game as the Crimson continued its dominance over Union with a 3-0 win. It was Harvard’s 26th consecutive victory over the Dutchwomen, a team that has never defeated the Crimson in program history.

Co-captain Emerance Maschmeyer picked up her fifth shutout of the season in front of the net, tallying 23 saves.

Harvard got off to a quick start thanks to junior Sydney Daniels. Less than three minutes into the game, senior Miye D’Oench fired a rocket towards goal that Daniels redirected past Union netminder Melissa Black. It was the 19th assist and 32nd point of the season for D’Oench, who is ranked fourth in points in the ECAC.

“Scoring a goal like that in the first five minutes is always good to get some momentum going forward in the game, which I’m happy we were able to hold onto,” Daniels said.

Following two penalty calls against Union, one for slashing and another for holding, the Crimson capitalized on the two-man advantage as co-captain Michelle Picard found the back of the net.

Junior blueliner Brianna Mastel fired a shot from the point which rebounded off of Black to Daniels. After Daniels and sophomore Karly Heffernan took a few shots from the side of the goal, Picard poked it in from just outside the crease to double the Harvard lead. Daniels and Heffernan were credited with the assists.

On the other end of the powerplay, Harvard maintained discipline, giving up only two penalties while scoring its first shorthanded goal since Halloween.

After sophomore forward Lexie Laing was sent to the box for tripping late in the second frame, sloppy play between two Union players, who failed to control possession, along the boards allowed a floating Daniels to pick up the puck in the neutral zone and rush down the left flanks unmarked.

The Southwick, Mass. native fired a slapshot from outside the left faceoff circle into the bottom right corner for her 15th goal of the season and third point of the game, tied for her single-game career high.

“Tying RPI wasn’t the outcome we wanted but I think turning around and really getting ready for Saturday’s win and getting the win really was good for us,” Daniels said. “It gave us a lot of momentum to catapult ahead for next weekend.”

HARVARD 1, RENSSELAER 1

The Crimson kicked off its road trip with a 1-1 tie against RPI, as rookie forward Grace Zarzecki’s eighth goal of the season tied the game for Harvard.

10 minutes after going down, sloppy passing between the RPI defenders bumped the puck into the slot and the path of Zarzecki, whose first time effort rocketed past goalie Lovisa Selander.

Despite outshooting the Engineers 43-26, including a 10-4 advantage in the first frame, it was RPI who opened the scoring. Following a scrum in front of Maschmeyer’s net, RPI sophomore Shayna Tomlinson poked the puck in on the left side to give her team the lead. Maschmeyer tallied 25 saves on the day.

The Crimson had key opportunities to take the lead in the third frame following two RPI penalties but failed to take advantage of either, letting the game escape into overtime. While Harvard dominated the extra frame, claiming a 4-1 shot advantage, RPI held the Crimson scoreless to escape with the tie.

“You have to give credit to RPI’s goalie [Selander],” Hallett said. “She played very well…. That said, there were 43 shots but shots are different than scoring opportunities. What was different this weekend was that we did have a lot more scoring opportunities than we’ve have lately, which is good…. If we keep pounding at it, we’ll get there.”

—Staff writer Julio Fierro can be reached at julio.fierro@thecrimson.com.