Icewomen Rout BC

Midway through the second period last night, when Harvard's Johanna Neilson skated towards the penalty box after a tripping call, the crowd at Northeastern's Mathews Arena was mistakenly informed by the announcer, "Harvard goal scored by..."

It's easy to understand his confusion.

Neilson's penalty was one of the few pauses during a Crimson scoring onslaught that downed the talonless Eagles of Boston College, 12-1, in the first game of the women's Beanpot opening round.

Harvard can now look forward to next Tuesday's Beanpot final against powerful Northeastern, which downed the Terriers of BU in last night's late game.

"It's going to be a lot tougher game than this," Harvard Co-Captain Genie Simmons said.

That the Crimson hadn't expected much trouble from B.C.--where women's hockey is only a club sport--was evident in the game's opening minute when Simmons stuffed the first of her two goals on the evening past besieged Eagle netminder Kate Debethune just 57 seconds into the opening period.

No elation, no customary backslapping or helmet patting on the part of the Crimson. Just a quiet reassembing at the red line for the post-goal face-off.

It was already clear that it would be one of those nights, very similar to the contest earlier in the season when Harvard (now 7-6-1 overall) blasted the same hapless Eagle squad (1-8) by a score of 11-0.

"It would be nice," said Crimson Coach John Dooley, "if B.C. and [fellow women's hockey doormat] Boston University built up their programs a bit."

But Harvard did all the building last night. Taking its cue from Simmons' early tally, the Crimson effortlessly constructed a 5-0 first stanza lead.

Karen Carney, who notched a hat trick on the evening, was the next to beat Debethune, taking the puck herself from directly behind the BC net to tally at 3:32.

Harvard's lone senior, Christine Dooley, found the twines barely more than a minute later, and center Lisi Bailliere followed with a strong wrist shot from the point at 7:18 gone.

Neilson's first of two tallies came at 8:49, ending the first period scoring, and adding to what was already a Harvard rout.

Between the first and the second periods, the teams didn't even leave their benches for the lockerroom.

The Zamboni machine didn't come out to restore the ice.

The attitude of everyone seemed to be to get the debacle over with as quickly as possible.

To open the second period, Harvard replaced number one goaltender Jennifer White with fellow freshman Rebecca Margulies. But the switch didn't affect the onrushing Crimson, who added four goals over the course of the stanza, or the Eagles, whose scoring opportunities continued to be an endangered species.

Though the Crimson was now clearly emphasizing its passing game, defenders Julie Sasner, Harvard's co-captain, and Amy Hartung both managed to get the puck past the BC goal-line in the second period. Simmons and Hartung also found the twines, notching their second scores of the game in the second period.

"Both of my goals came from really good passes," Simmons said. "We were really trying to work on our plays out there."

The third period offered more opportunity for the Crimson to refine its game.

Neilson worked on her wrist shot, taking Brita Lind's pass from the corner boards and flicking it into the low twines at 5:11.

To close out the Crimson dozen, first-line forwards Carney and Lind once again worked their reciprocal-tallies-within-a-minute magic, Lind first setting up her linemate at 11:18, and Carney returning the favor 25 seconds later.

The pair had accomplished the same feat in an earlier 11-1 thrashing of B.U.

The night wasn't a total loss for B.C., however, as Eagle Lisa Bonadies foiled White and Margulies' shutout with a crowded-crease goal with just under two minutes to play in the game.