Icewomen Stop Bulldogs, 2-0; Carroll Keys Crimson Attack

Kathy Carroll is having a lot of fun on the ice these days. And at the same time, she's making life difficult for opponents of the Harvard women's ice hockey team.

Yale was Carroll's latest victim, as the junior center continued her scoring streak Saturday night at Bright Center, knocking in the Crimson's first goal and providing the assist on its only other score in the squad's 2-0 triumph over the Bulldogs.

The Ivy win, which keeps the team's playoff hopes alive, upped the Crimson's record to 6-5 overall (3-3 in the Ivies) while Yale fell to 2-7 (1-4 in the Ivies). And with the victory, the icewomen vaulted to third place in league standings, trailing Brown by one game and Princeton by two.

"This was an extremely big win for us." Harvard Coach John Dooley said "We didn't get a strong performance from everyone, but Vicki Palmer and Kathy Carroll really came through."

"Coming through" has become a trademark of late for Carroll. The Portland, Me., native now leads the squad with 15 points and nine goals.

"I'm having a real good time," Carroll said. "We're back to our original lines and everyone seems pretty happy with that."

Yet those new lines, which once again put Carroll with seniors Alex Lightfoot and Jennifer White, may have caused some problems Saturday night.

"We'd been having some trouble finishing off shots recently," Dooley said. "So Friday night we decided to go back to the lines we had at the beginning of the year. The fact that those new lines hadn't played together in a while caused a few problems. We actually made an easy game difficult."

The team showed little evidence of any problems in the game's first few moments, though. With just 2 27 gone in the contest, the Crimson's Sue Newell found Carroll in front of the Bulldog net, and before Eli goalie Betsy Mason could react. Carroll had put Harvard up, 1-0.

Several minutes later, the icewomen appeared on their way to a rout as White took the puck from Carroll and Lightfoot and smashed it past Mason for a 2-0 lead. But despite on a passes and a strong defense the Crimson offense faltered in the final two periods in which the icewomen failed to connect on 30 shots on goal.

"We had a lot of shets out there but just kept missing," Dooley said. "Hopefully it's due to the new lines. The key thing is we've got some momentum he iding into the Beanpot and our final few games."

With a two-game win streak in hand, the Crimson will open its defense of last year's Beanpot championship at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Bright Center against Boston College.

"Now we're going back in with momentum and confidence and hopefully we'll be able to repeat," Carroll said.

THE NOTEBOOK: Tickets for the Beanpot are $3 for adults and $2 for students, available at the door. The Yale victory marked the second straight shutout for Crimson goalie Cheryl Tate, who had six saves against the Bulldogs... The icewomen travel to Cornell Saturday for a must-win game.