Women's Ice Hockey Splits Games Against Brown, Yale

Playing in its final games of the 2016-2017 season, the Harvard women’s ice hockey team (5-19-5, 5-13-4 ECAC) faced off against two Ivy league rivals in Yale (10-15-4, 8-12-2) and Brown (7-22-0, 5-17-0) at the Bright-Landry Hockey Center over the weekend. After beating Yale 5-0 on Friday, the Crimson fell to Brown 3-1 in its final game of the season.

HARVARD 1, BROWN 3

Despite controlling the action for most of the game, Harvard lost its season closer, 3-1, to Brown, spoiling the home team's honoring of its six seniors directly following the game.The Bears set the stage by scoring the game’s opening goal at 16:06 on an unassisted shot by freshman forward Sena Hanson.

The Crimson controlled much of the action in the second period, but were unable to score. With 8:25 remaining, Brown junior forward Samantha Swanstrom saw her shot tipped into the goal to double the Bears’ lead.

Harvard pulled to within one at 13:39 in the third period. On the power play, senior forward Briana Mastel swung the puck to senior defender Abbey Frazer who fired a shot into a crowd around the net. Junior forward Lexie Laing scooped up the open puck and shot it into the goal for the score. With 1:40 remaining, the Crimson pulled its goalkeeper in an attempt to tie the score and send the game into overtime. However, after a blocked shot at 19:24, Hanson scooped up the puck and skated to the other end to score Brown’s third goal of the day.

After the game, the team took the time to celebrate its graduating seniors. Brianna Laing, Natasha Rachlin, Mastel, Frazer, Molly Tissenbaum and Sydney Daniels had all played their final games for Harvard. The Crimson in the class of 2017 combined for 73 wins over four years.

HARVARD 5, YALE 0

In the its first game of the weekend, Harvard came out shooting against Yale in what would end up being a 5-0 victory for the team. The shutout was the Crimson’s second and goalkeeper Brianna Laing’s first of the year.

Harvard’s first goal came at 6:41 in the first period. On the power play, Lexie Laing’s shot bounced off of the frame of the goal, but Daniels was able to grab the rebound and score.

Daniels would again score in the second period to double the Crimson’s lead. At 6:58, Mastel carried the puck down the left side of the rink before swinging a pass to a cutting Daniels for the score, her 11th of the year. The multi-point outing was Daniels’ 18th of her career. In addition, her goal, the 59th of her career, moved her into 15th all time on Harvard’s career goals list.

Five minutes later, at 11:47, the Crimson scored again. Sophomore forward Bradley Fusco intercepted a Yale pass near the goal. After carrying the puck around the back of the net, she found sophomore forward Kate Hallet, whose one-timer sneaked past Yale’s goalie.

Just before the second intermission, at 19:33, Mastel found junior defender Chelsea Ziadie, whose shot went into the top corner of the goal. The goal was Ziadie’s third of the season as well as her third in the past five games.

Harvard continued its attack into the third period. At 16:16, Rachlin and freshman forward Kat Hughes played the puck to Lexie Laing in transition. Laing then skated past a pair of Yale defenders before firing a shot into the top corner of the goal, Harvard’s fifth of the day.

—Staff writer Sean B. Chanicka can be reached at sean.chanicka@thecrimson.com.