Wildcats Claw Icewomen, 8-0

Harvard center Johanna Neilson tumbled to the ice while clutching her aching stomach.

The problem wasn't the Cabot House food she ate prior to last night's women's hockey game against the University of New Hampshire but, rather, a blast off the stick of Wildcat defender Pam Manning that found Neilson's gut instead of the back of the Crimson twines.

But fortunately for Neilson--and unfortunately for Harvard--not many UNH shots missed their mark as the Wildcats (6-0) trounced the Crimson (3-4), 8-0, in front of 50 spectators at Bright Arena.

"It's disappointing because we're a better team than the score showed," Neilson said. "We had a lot of chances to put it in the net. But luck didn't go our way this time."

It would have taken luck--and maybe an appearance by iceman Scott Fusco in drag--to outdo the powerful Wildcats.

Because although Harvard goalie Jennifer White held UNH to only two goals in the first period--no small feat considering the 17 shots the Cats reeled off--she could not stop forward Vivienne Ferry's breakaway blast at 12:08 of the second period that began the onslaught that led to the Wildcat rout.

New Hampshire wing Katey Stone followed Ferry's goal three minutes later with a two-ft. slapshot.

And three minutes after that, UNH defender Shelly DiFronzo skated past the back-tracking Crimson defense to within five feet of the Harvard goal, where she flicked in a pretty backhand.

Ferry and DiFronzo added a pair of goals in the third period to finish the scoring and finish off the Crimson.

But while much went wrong for the Cantabs last night, enough went right to keep Harvard Coach John Dooley encouraged about his team's prospects.

"It's hard to play against the hired guns, four lines of excellent hockey players," Dooley said. "But we learned a lot."

Dooley might have taken pleasure in some individual performances:

White made several stunning saves in the first period to keep her team in the game during the early going while forward Lisi Bailliere and Neilson combined for a couple of exchanges that nearly fooled Wildcat goalie Liz Tura.

But while several of the first line duo's late-game rushes brought cheers from the disgruntled crowd, neither Neilson--Harvard's leading scorer with six goals--nor Bailliere, a former third-liner, could score.

The recent paucity of Crimson goals--Harvard has been shut out in two straight games--should be corrected when the Cantabs face the University of Vermont Saturday. The Crimson beat the Catamounts, 4-3, earlier in the year.

"Because of [last night's] game, you'll see us play much better against Vermont than we did last time," Dooley said.