Women's Ice Hockey Slips into Six-Game Losing Streak

Continuing a difficult stretch of games against top opponents, Harvard women’s hockey dropped consecutive contests to No. 10 St. Lawrence and No. 2/2 Clarkson this weekend. The pair of home losses pushed the Crimson’s losing streak to six games.

“Although we didn’t get the four points for the two games, I think we were playing our best hockey this year,” junior defender Kaitlin Tse said. “But we also need to recognize that it wasn’t a win, and down the stretch we’re looking for as many points as we can to make the playoffs.”

ST. LAWRENCE 3, HARVARD 0

In Saturday’s matchup, the Saints (14-7-3, 10-3-1 ECAC) pitched a shutout, holding Harvard scoreless for just the second time on the season.

The Crimson (8-10-1, 6-7-1) tallied more shots on goal and won more faceoffs than St. Lawrence, but the Saints took advantage of several prime scoring opportunities and corralled Harvard’s offensive attack all afternoon.

“Sometimes we have possession of the puck in the offensive zone, but we’re playing too much on the perimeter of the zone instead of taking the puck directly to the net,” junior forward Bradley Fusco said.

St. Lawrence senior forward Hannah Miller assisted linemate Kennedy Marchment twice, once in the opening period and once in the third. The goals marked the third straight game that Marchment found the back of the net twice.

Waiting 14 minutes into the first period, Miller slung a pass across the crease and Marchment redirected it off the back crossbar. Initially, the play was not ruled a goal, and Miller scored 20 seconds later. Upon review, however, Marchment was given scoring credit.

The duo reconnected 7:18 into the closing period to put the game on ice for the Saints.

Marchment’s first goal was the difference-maker, but St. Lawrence kept the pressure on in the second frame. Just 1:57 after the intermission, sophomore defender Dakota Golde secured a pass from sophomore forward Kayla Vespa. Golde fought her way to the net and snuck a shot past Crimson sophomore goalie Beth Larcom.

“We need to find a way to put the puck in the net, and hopefully that’ll come, but we did have a tough stretch with a bunch of good teams that we were playing,” Fusco said.

CLARKSON 3, HARVARD 1

On Friday night, Harvard showed some resistance against ECAC powerhouse Clarkson (21-3-1, 12-2-0), but the Golden Knights got out to an early lead and would not relinquish its advantage all game.

“It’s been a trend for the past couple of games where we’re down 1-0, 2-0 and then we start scoring, so we need to come out right from the start ready to go and attack the net,” Tse said. “We battled with Clarkson, we battled with St. Lawrence, but they capitalized and they just found a way to score.”

Early in the third period, the Crimson had its best chance at a comeback. Clarkson had built a 2-0 lead with a goal in each of the first two periods, but it had not scored in over 18 minutes. Harvard battled for possession in the neutral zone and eventually controlled the puck behind the net. Co-captain Haley Mullins dished the puck to Tse out in front of the crease, and Tse poked the puck in for her second goal of the season.

Though the Crimson had quickly launched itself back into contention after a sluggish start, the Golden Knights silenced any doubts just as quickly. Only 2:33 after Tse’s tally, sophomore forward Michaela Pejzlova received a backhanded pass from junior forward Loren Gabel and laced a shot past Larcom’s blocker to put Clarkson up, 3-1.

Pejzlova and Gabel were the Golden Knights’ standout performers, as they collectively earned five points. Pejzlova picked up assists on Clarkson’s other two scores, and Gabel scored the visitors’ second goal at the 7:08 mark in the second frame.

The Golden Knights had many chances to make the game a blowout, but Harvard’s penalty kill held the visiting team in check. The Crimson faced six shorthanded situations and shut down Clarkson’s attack each time.

“They have one of the leading power plays in the country right now…so to not have them score I think that gives us confidence,” Tse said. “But also we’ve got to stay out of the box.”

—Staff writer Jack Stockless can be reached at jack.stockless@thecrimson.com.