Icewomen Beat Bowdoin

"We are starting to peak," announced Harvard women's hockey coach John Dooley after last night's game at the Bright Center. That may be a bit of an understatement: the icewomen's 7-0 drubbing of Bowdoin raised their season record to 14-5 and ran their post-exams winning streak to eight.

They could not have picked a better time to get hot. The Crimson,s inspired play carried it to two hard-fought one-goal victories in last week's Beanpot tournament, and the squad will get a chance to repeat that feat this weekend when it travels to Dartmouth for the Ivy League Tourney.

Last night's casual destruction of Bowdoin was certainly one of the least nerve-wracking of the Crimson's recent triumphs. The ice almost seemed tilted toward the bears' goal in the early going, but some nifty saves by netminder Susan Leonard kept the Crimson off the board for almost half a period.

Finally, Sue Newell, Harvard's top clutch scorer of late with overtime goals against Dartmouth and Northeastern, scored a shorthanded tally off a two-on-one break with Firkins Reed to get the rout underway.

Right wing Vicki Palmer scored a power-play goal seven minutes later to widen the lead. And the Crimson turned the area around the Bowdoin net into a red-light district in the second stanza, with Jennifer White, Cathy Carrol and Dianne Hurley hitting the twines. A Megan Berthold slapshot, deflected by a defender's skate, and another goal by Carroll in the third period finished off the scoring.

The win was a showcase for the Crimson's recent improvement the icewomen's blueliners, and goalie Cheryl Tate have grown steadily better throughout the streak, as Harvard's goals-against average has sunk below two per game. But the biggest transformation has come on offense, where a corps of forwards, lacking blistering shots, have learned to beat opposing netminders from in close. In the first half of the season, the icewomen regularly racked up amazing shot-on-goal totals but often very few goals. In the eight games since then, the Crimson has outscored its opposition 51-11.

The Showdown

Under the current Ivy setup, the regular season means nothing except a competition for seeds in the League tournament, and a chance to gain some momentum going in--as the Crimson has done. Starting next year, the best regular-season record will be worth a league championship, but this year it's worth only a number-one seeding and a first-round bye (to top-ranked Princeton).

Harvard, the most improved team in the Ivies (it had a 7-12 mark last year), holds the second seed, and the other first-round bye. The first-round matchups, set for Friday, pit third-seeded Cornell versus Brown, and Dartmouth against Yale. The Crimson will play a semifinal contest at 12:30 pm. at Thompson Arena Saturday, and a Sunday 3 p.m. final (or 11:30 a.m. consolation game).

The Crimson lost to the Tigers, 3-1 on Dec 19, and has yet to face the Big Red, but it's racked up wins against each of the other league rivals. In its current winning streak Harvard has not only topped the Elis and the Big Green but has victimized an array of non-league opponents, including B.C., B.U. and Wesleyan. Crimson