Huskies Overwhelm Outsized Icewomen

The Harvard women's hockey team brought a three-game winning streak to Northeastern's Boston Arena last night, but it left Huntington Avenue with its second loss of the season, a 5-1 defeat at the hands of the superior, more experienced Huskies.

For the first time this season, the Crimson was outshot by the opposition. Last night's shot totals--21 by Harvard, and 40 on the Crimson net-were close to the reverse of those in the team's pervious game, a 3-2 win over B.U.

With Cheryl Tate turning in a strong performance in the Crimson net, the icewomen played the Huskies--third-ranked in the East--to a scoreless first-period deadlock. "We really checked and hustled," coaching assistant Lloyd Perlmutter said. "We were beating them to the puck."

Ice-Breaking

But soon into the second of the 18-minute stanzas, the Huskies broke the ice. Northeastern's Patti Storey set up behind the Crimson net and passed to linemate Shelley Spencer in the slot, who beat netminder Tate at 1:27

As the period progressed, "they started beating us to the puck," Perlmutter said. The Huskies, bigger and stronger than the Crimson, started to control the play in Harvard's zone. Storey gave Northeastern a two-goal edge, converting a pass from Carol Latorre at 11:07. Just two minutes later, Sue Meuner made it 3-0, poking it past Tate during a scramble in front of the net.

During the second intermission, coach John Dooley "told us to really go after them," center Kathy Caroll said. And the Crimson got off to a fast third-period start, striking for a power-play goal at the 49-second mark. Dianne Hurley, the Crimson's leading scorer, tallied her fifth of the season, taking a pass from winger Liz Ward and beating Huskie goalie Kathie Scanlon.

Harvard started to pick up momentum after Hurley's goal, but Janice Cooperman stopped the Crimson rally, scoring at 5:11. After a series of penalties finished off Harvard's offensive efforts, Storrey slipped one through Tate's legs, her second goal of the night, at 17:08, to make it 5-1.

Hoods

Coach Dooley was not overly disappointed with the team's performance. "They're an excellent team and physically stronger than us," he said. The Huskies manhandled the Crimson for most of the contest. "They were dirty," Tate said. "There was a lot of holding and interfering in front of the net which the refs missed."