Women’s Hockey Ends the Semester With Mixed Results, Beating Union but Losing Out Late to RPI

Harvard Women’s ice hockey (7-6-1, 4-5-1 ECAC) found mixed success at Bright-Landry to end the semester, coming out with a strong 4-2 victory against Union (8-9-3, 2-7-1 ECAC) on Friday, but falling 1-3 on Saturday against RPI (6-15, 3-7 ECAC). Nevertheless, this semester marks the team’s best opening to a season since 2021. Although it is just under halfway through the season, the Crimson has already matched its total goals scored from last season as well as its total games won across the last two seasons.

Harvard 4, Union 2

The Crimson came out flying to start its first game of the weekend, scoring in the first minute of the period as freshman Morgan McGathey found the back of the net off a rebound from sophomore Keira Ley’s shot. Despite its 1-0 lead, the team didn’t let up as the period continued, with an aggressive forecheck and clean breakout allowing Harvard to maintain their offensive pressure. Just a few minutes later, the Crimson’s energy paid off as it broke through yet again, junior captain Zoe Boomsamra stealing the puck on the backcheck in the Chargers’ zone, turning around, and sniping the top left corner for the 2-0 lead.

Union seemed to gain its footing after the early flurry of attacks from Harvard, with sophomore goalie Ainsley Tuffy playing a crucial role in net to maintain the two-goal lead. As both teams settled into the game, the competition looked even. While the Chargers had some quick skaters who managed to create breakaways down the ice, the Crimson’s defense was unflappable, taking away prime scoring opportunities and letting Tuffy work her magic in net.

In contrast, Harvard looked dangerous on the offensive, taking low, hard shots from across the zone and clogging up the slot to allow for tips and rebounds from across the Crimson’s lineup. Freshman defensemen Emi Biotti and senior captain Kate Kasica nearly scored twice off a shot from the blue line and a tip from the slot; however, it was junior Angelica Megdanis who found the back of the net off a deflected shot from sophomore Ella Lucia to extend Harvard’s lead, 3-0. The period closed with two power plays for the Crimson; however, the Chargers managed to hold off Harvard’s attack to keep the game at 3-0.

Going into the second period, Union did not go down without a fight, nearly capitalizing on an unlucky bounce off the skate of sophomore Scout Oudemool in the neutral zone, with a big save from Tuffy keeping the Chargers scoreless. However, even as Union stepped up its game, the Crimson did not lift its foot off the pedal, continuing to cycle the puck well in the offensive zone and find backdoor passes and tips to keep the Chargers on the defensive. Harvard’s work paid off again just under halfway through the period, junior defensemen Annie Sun worked the puck low in the zone to find freshman Carla McSweeney, who placed a shot just over the left pad of the Union keeper.

Despite the Crimson’s 4-0 lead, a roughing penalty on sophomore Annie Dinges gave Union the opportunity to get back into the game. The Chargers quickly capitalized, finding the backdoor pass to get the puck past Tuffy to get on the board, 4-1. Play remained tight through the rest of the period as Union seemed to find its footing in the offensive zone while Harvard’s forecheck remained quick and aggressive. Although both teams found scoring chances, neither defensive lineup let up as the rest of the second period remained scoreless.

Heading into the third period, Union upped the pressure with everything to play for, shutting down the Crimson’s breakout and forcing Tuffy to make some tough saves to keep the team’s three-goal lead. A flat rebound off a great glove save from Tuffy allowed Union to sneak a goal just past the sophomore’s pad to close up the game 4-2. However, even as the momentum of the game seemed to swing towards the Chargers, the Crimson never let up, scrappily fending off Union’s attack, even as it pulled its goalie with just under two minutes left in the game. With a resilient performance across the ice from Harvard, the Crimson started the weekend strong with a 4-2 win to bring three league points home.

Tuffy attributed the team’s success to Harvard’s mindset going into the weekend.

“Going into this game, I think we all had that mindset of having a high effort, putting the puck in the net, getting it deep, and managing the puck, and I think we did that today,” said Tuffy. “And in between every period, we recollected, and we talked about effort throughout the entire game, just having that high intensity.”

Harvard 1, RPI 3

Looking to bring that intensity again, but with both teams coming off big wins to start the weekend, Saturday’s game started quickly and physically as Harvard swiftly gained offensive momentum with junior captain Zoe Boomsamra getting checked while driving to the front of the net for a shot. Despite a number of close shots and great puck movement across the zone, the Crimson couldn’t capitalize on its advantage as the Engineers kept the score tied at zero.

However, just a few moments later, Harvard was on the power play yet again following a too many women on the ice call against RPI. This time, the Crimson made it count as McGathey found classmate McSweeny in front of the net for a goal to take a 1-0 lead.

Soon after, a penalty for hooking called on Megdanis put Harvard on the defensive as the Engineers fought to get on the board. Despite a barrage of shots from across the zone, senior captain Emily Davidson remained stalwart in net, helping maintain the team’s lead. Yet another penalty from RPI for holding nearly allowed the Crimson to extend its lead; however, the Engineers nearly bit back with a one-on-one breakaway to close out the period. Nevertheless, Biotti fended off the attack with the help of Davidson, leaving Harvard unscathed to end the first period.

The Crimson carried its momentum into the second period, coming out strong and maintaining possession in the offensive zone. However, a missed pass from Megdanis on the team’s offensive blue line gave RPI a clean breakaway down the ice. With Dinges providing defensive pressure with her hard backcheck, Davidson made yet another crucial save to keep the Crimson ahead.

The game remained chippy between both teams as sophomore Emily Hamann found herself checked into the boards, putting Harvard on the power play yet again. Freshman Bella Finnegan nearly found the back of the net for her first career goal, deking around her defender for a clean shot at the net, just missing her own rebound. Both teams seemed to step it up as the second period continued and the competition looked evenly matched. However, a too-many-women penalty on Harvard gave RPI the edge it needed to tie up the game, 1-1, as a shot from the blue line made its way through the Crimson’s defense and past Davidson.

With the game tied up, RPI came into the third period swinging, taking the early momentum and maintaining possession in Harvard’s defensive zone as the Crimson struggled to break the puck out. However, even as the pressure from the Engineers increased, Harvard stayed tough with Davidson having a showout game in net, and Oudemool even getting taken off the ice after blocking a hard shot from the slot straight off the faceoff.

An icing from RPI was all it took for the Crimson to find its offensive stride as Finnegan again showed off her handles, dancing through the zone, nearly finding the back of the net, and senior Gwyn Lapp tipped a shot from classmate Sun just off the crossbar. A timeout called by Coach Bellamy gave Harvard a moment of respite from the relentless attacking pressure of the Engineers. Nevertheless, the Crimson didn’t let up, getting the puck out of the zone when it had to and finding scoring opportunities wherever possible. However, with just under four minutes left in the game, RPI managed to break through, capitalizing on a tough rebound to slide the puck just past Davidson to put the Crimson down 1-2.

McSweeny nearly tied up the game with a hard backhand shot from just inside the slot before Davidson was pulled off the ice to give the Crimson an extra man advantage. While Harvard was just starting to generate offensive movement to get back into the game, RPI managed to snipe the empty with a loose puck on their defensive blue line to extend its lead, 1-3. The Crimson continued to fight, pulling Davidson again with less than a minute left and nearly scoring off a tip-in front of the net, but ultimately the Engineers held them off to end their weekend with a sweep.

Harvard heads into the winter break with momentum, sitting in seventh place in the ECAC with four weeks before returning to play to keep building towards the second half of the season. In a press conference after the game, Coach Bellamy spoke to the team’s improvement for this year as well as her goals for continuing to build over the break.

“I think we’re using each other really well, making plays, unselfish plays, to create scoring opportunities and score goals. So, you know, we’re halfway through the year, and we’re meeting our goal total from last year; that’s obviously a huge step forward. Really proud of us there,” she said. “I think for us, we want to continue to get better on offense, be more dynamic, be really hard to play against, and while we do that, make sure we're continuing to take care of our own end… So we’re going to keep working, keep working on really everything, but just to be a better hockey team, I think we're going to want to make sure we tighten up in our own end.”

With its next competition not until January 2nd, the Crimson will look to keep building both offensively and defensively to carry on the early success they’ve already found this year. Before resuming conference play in a highly anticipated rematch against Brown, Harvard will first have the opportunity to take their game abroad as it competes in Belfast, Northern Ireland for the first full women’s tournament of the Friendship Four series. On January 2nd the Crimson will first face off against Coach Bellamy’s old team, No. 6 Minnesota Duluth, for whom she was an assistant then associate head coach for eight seasons and helped build into a national power today, before going on to play either No. 11 Boston University or No. 10 Quinnipiac on January 3rd.