Icewomen: Movin' On Up

February 28, 1982: The clock was winding down, and the Harvard women's hockey team was training a superior Princeton squad, 4-2, in the final of the Ivy League tournament at Dartmouth. Hanover's deep-freeze was seeping into Thompson Arena, where most of the 5000 seats (all green) were empty, the rink announcer listed the Tigers' scoring in a voice like that of HAL the computer in "2001", and the few Dartmouth students who wandered by were decidedly pro-Princeton ("We can't root for Hahvahd"). And in the waning minutes, Princeton winger Kelly O'Dell pumped in two more goals to secure the Ivy championship.

Although the images of the finale are less than glorious, most of the scenes from the Icewomen's season were nothing short of amazing. A squad in only its fourth year of varsity status, which had never risen above a 7-12 record, complied a mark of 15-6, finished second in the Ivy tournament and won its first-ever Beanpot. After getting off to a solid (6-3 by reading period), the Crimson dropped two close contests just before exams, then went on a tear in February, mowing down nine straight opponents before bowing to the Tigers.

There were so many thrillers that spectacular nine-game streak when the Crimson would just edge past the opposition late in the game that you could almost take an exciting win for granted. There was the game at Yale when Harvard scored three times in the last five minutes for a 4-2 win. There was the overtime with Dartmouth at Bright, when, on a textbook play, Firkins Reed screened the goalie and Sue Newell scored on a soft backhander. There was the marathon five-overtime struggle with heavily-favored Northeastern in the first round of the Beanpot, ended after four hours and 15 minutes by Sue Yunick's breakaway goal. And there was the scoreless overtime, followed by a game-deciding shootout, in Harvard's 4-3 win over Cornell in the League tourney semis.

One of the little battles that typified the icewomen's turn-around season was their rivalry with Lisa Whitcomb, Boston University's all-EAIAW goalie.

In the season opener Whitcomb stopped 40 Crimson shots for a 1-0 shutouts. Then, in a rematch two weeks later, Harvard edged the Terriers, when center Liz Ward scored in the final minutes for the 3-2 win. And in the final of the Beanpot--a tourney in which Whitcomb had posted three straight shutouts over two years--freshman Ward again victimized the Terrier netminder, scoring twice for a 2-1 victory and Harvard's first 'Pot.

What transformed last year's cellar-dwellers into this year's contenders?

A big factor was the team's new coach, John Dooley, who brought 21 years of high school and junior college coaching experience to his first women's hockey assignment. The icewomen's new mentor managed to draw out the squad's wealth of underlying talent, especially after some successful line juggling following exams.

"The biggest difference between this year and last year was definitely the coaching," said co-captain Reed. "What Dooley brought out in us was the ability to play as a unit."

The line of Ward, Vicki Palmer and leading scorer Dianne Hurley started terrorizing opposing goalies, the corps of blueliners played stellar defense, consistently riding attacking forwards off the puck, and sophomore goalie Cheryl Tate turned in a string of solid, often superb performances, particularly in her Beanpot wins.

With only four seniors on the current squad, Reed and her co-captain Julie Starr, Yunick, and Liz Hodder--next year's icewomen will probably prove even further that Harvard is no longer a laughing matter in women's hockey.