Tigers, Refs Shut Out W. Hockey, 3-0

Penalties hurt, and game-breaking penalties kill.

The Harvard women's hockey team learned that lesson last Saturday in a 3-0 loss to Princeton at Princeton.

"We definitely let the officiating get to us," sophomore A.J. Mleczko said.

Mleczko was specifically referring to two Harvard goals that were wiped out by dubious penalties.

The first came in the middle of the opening stanza.

Princeton had taken an early 1-0 lead at the 17:14 mark on a fluke shot by Shari Seibert during a Harvard line change.

Several minutes later, controversy struck. Harvard had control of the puck in the Princeton zone, and after peppering Tiger goalie Liz Hill with a series of shots, senior co-captain Diana Clark found the net--or so the team thought. The referee behind the net immediately signaled no goal, contending that a Harvard player had entered the crease.

After a scoreless second period, the Tigers put the game away with two goals in a 4:11 span in the third to go up by three.

But the controversy didn't end.

Late in the game, a second Harvard goal--scored by A.J. Mleczko on a rebound of a shot from the point by junior Holly Leitzes--was erased by a tripping penalty called on junior Stacy Kellogg.

"[The officials] said I tripped a girl before the goal went in," Kellogg said. "They gave three different numbers to our coach [Kathy Stone] before they gave the penalty to me."

But the players acknowledged that the inconsistent calls weren't the only cause for the loss.

"We should have been able to play despite that," A.J. Mleczko said.

Harvard also had difficulty taking advantage of the power play, going 0-for-7 for the day.

"We had a hard time setting up in our offensive zone," Kellogg said.

"They had a very aggressive man-down defense," A.J. Mleczko said. "We felt too much pressure to set up and didn't do the basics."

The offense struggled, due to the swarming Princeton defense.

"We had trouble bringing the puck through center ice to the offensive zone," Kellogg said.

Harvard was held to 13 shots on goal, all stopped by Hill. Princeton fired the biscuit 19 times at Harvard senior goalie Erin Villiotte.

Princeton also entered Saturday's contest seeking a measure of revenge. Their unbeaten streak was ended by a 3-1 loss to Harvard December 3, and they lost the next day to Northeastern.

"They came out fired up and with a lot of speed," A.J. Mleczko said. "Princeton came out a lot more intense than us."

In the end, however, the frustration with the controversial officiating weighed on the team. With two minutes left in the game, after the second nullified goal, Coach Stone was slapped with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for arguing with the referees.

All in all, it seemed to the Crimson like an afternoon to just forget.

"We were all like, 'Let's just finish the game and get on the bus," Kellogg said. Princeton  3 Harvard  0