BU Captures Historic Women’s Beanpot Title Despite 51 Saves from Harvard’s Reed

A season-high six-game unbeaten streak for Harvard came to a close Tuesday night with an overtime loss in the Beanpot Championship against No. 7/7 Boston University. Freshman goalie Lindsay Reed posted a 51-save effort — complementing her 52-save performance to best Boston College in the semifinals — on her way to earning the Bertagna Award for top goaltender in the Battle for Boston.

The effort would not be enough for the Crimson (10-12-3, 8-8-2 ECAC) as BU redshirt junior and tri-captain Sammy Davis lasered a power-play overtime winner past Reed to give the Terriers (17-6-7, 13-5-5 WHEA) a 3-2 win. The victory marks their first Beanpot title as a varsity program, and their second title in school history — the first coming in 1981.

Despite BU’s overtime clincher, Harvard earned a considerable share of zone time in extra play, putting up nine shots on goal compared to the Terriers’ six. Halfway through overtime, the Crimson looked poised to score, generating a frenzy of shots that BU sophomore goalie Corinne Schroeder turned away, Terrier defenders blocked, and BU forwards scrapped to chip out of the zone.

“Overtime was honestly our best period,” Harvard coach Katey Stone said. “We had it going. We certainly had a lot of chances. Their goaltender came up big, and once again, our goaltender stood on her head…. I thought our players obviously deserved a better fate, but BU also earned the victory.”

Freshman Lindsay Reed's 52 saves on the night gave her the Bertagna Award, given to the Beanpot's top goaltender. By Timothy R. O'Meara

After several minutes of promising chances and near misses, Harvard’s overtime offensive momentum would be quashed with a decisive penalty. With 7:06 of sudden-death remaining, co-captain and forward Lexie Laing took a penalty for roughing.

Just 34 seconds later, BU sophomore forward Jesse Compher threaded a pinpoint pass to an open Davis. Receiving the pass between the dots, Davis rifled the puck into the back of the net to earn the Beanpot title, launching the Terriers’ bench and student section into euphoria.

“I just looked at Jesse [Compher], and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, we just won the Beanpot,” said Davis. “It was crazy — we just made history. We’ve been working really hard this year, and it just paid off.”

As the scoreline would suggest, the game was a battle at all junctures, and the path to overtime was rocky for both teams. BU needed to come from behind to even the score at two, and Harvard had to fight off consecutive Terrier power plays to close regulation.

With 6:59 to go in the third, co-captain and forward Kate Hallett committed a high-sticking minor. Upon killing Hallett’s minor, a miscommunication on the post-penalty line change resulted in a Harvard penalty for too many players on the ice.

Just seven seconds after the conclusion of her initial trip to the sin bin, Hallett found herself back in the box. Undeterred, the Crimson relied on its season-long traditional defensive strength to earn back-to-back penalty kills and send the matchup to OT.

After holding off two consecutive power-plays in the third period, junior forward Kat Hughes had a breakaway opportunity but was tripped up by a BU defender. No penalty was called. By Timothy R. O'Meara

“We did a great job of killing penalties up until the very end of the game tonight,” Stone said. “Just a little miscommunication there at the end for us, but I think we’ve been doing a great job of killing penalties for a while now. We showed it tonight — they’ve got a strong power play. It was business as usual.”

Looking back to the beginning of the contest, the teams played physically and generated a number of chances through the first 18 minutes of play, yet the back of the net eluded both sides. That changed with 1:32 left in the first period when BU tri-captain Reagan Rust squeaked a point shot through traffic and into the top shelf to give the Terriers a power-play goal and 1-0 lead.

Wasting no time, another defender converted on the power play — but this time it was Harvard senior Kaitlin Tse. Gathering the puck in the high slot, Tse strung a wrister into the top-right corner to even the game at 1-1 before the first intermission.

“It was just a high-energy last two minutes of the period, both offensively and defensively, and then going back to the locker room, we were going back to the start of the game, 0-0, 1-1, tie game,” Laing said. “We tried to feed off the energy that we had when we scored the goal and then just tried to carry it out.”

Special teams played a huge role in the game for both sides. Both Crimson goals came on the power play, and BU would net two of its three scores on the five-on-four advantage.

Building off momentum from the close of the first, Harvard would add its second power-play goal just five minutes into the middle frame.

Controlling the puck on the left side of the net from just a few paces above the goal line, freshman forward Kristin Della Rovere fired to the low far side. Ricocheting off Schroeder’s pad, the puck bounced back into the slot before caroming back into the goal.

Laing had been standing in front to create the tangle of sticks and skates off which the puck deflected. In fact, the officials initially credited the goal to Laing, but the scorekeepers later changed the point to a Della Rovere tally. Regardless, Harvard was in the lead.

Just minutes later, still holding a 2-1 lead, Harvard earned its third power-play opportunity of the game. With a flurry of blocked shots, saves, and desperation clearances, however, the Terriers kept the Crimson out of the net.

“It was a huge kill, because 3-1 is a tough hole to get out of playing against an all-world goalie like Lindsay and a team that’s competing in their own building,” BU coach Brian Durocher said.

Fueled by the successful penalty kill, the Terriers emerged with a faceoff win in Harvard territory with just under five minutes left in the second. After a blue-line shot from BU junior defender Abby Cook, the puck deflected through defenders, hit Reed, then trickled off the post. As the puck remained loose, a scrum broke out for possession. Gaining inside position, junior tri-captain Natasza Tarnowski tapped the puck in to knot the game.

“We get a neat little faceoff play where Abby Cook gets it at the point and sees Tasza Tarnowski and throws a nice little wrist pass down there, and she gets a piece of it, tips it, and Lindsay [Reed] comes up and makes the save, but she [Tarnowski] somehow kept it alive or knocked it out of her equipment, and bingo it’s in the net,” Durocher said. “Now we’re there to hang around until we get deep into OT.”

The Crimson held most of the momentum in the overtime period but could not send one through the pipes. By Timothy R. O'Meara

Although Harvard’s Beanpot dreams have come to an end for this year, the Crimson’s season is far from over. With four games to go in ECAC play and playoff positioning still uncertain, Harvard will be flipping its focus to a pair of crucial league games. The Crimson returns to Bright-Landry at 6 p.m. on Friday to face St. Lawrence in a pivotal matchup before shifting attention to another top-ten opponent in No. 4/4 Clarkson at 3 p.m. on Saturday.

— Staff writer William Boggs can be reached at william.boggs@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @BoggsTHC.

— Staff writer Connor Wagaman can be reached at connor.wagaman@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @WagamanTHC.