Icewomen Split Pair at Home

This past weekend, the Harvard women's hockey team learned that nothing will come easy this season.

After winning the Bronze Medal at the All-American Collegiate Tournament in Minnesota on November 11, Harvard (3-2, 1-1 ECAC) played two less-than-spectacular games at Bright Hockey Center, defeating Yale 2-1 yesterday and falling to Princeton 8-2 on Saturday.

Both games were very winnable for the Crimson. Harvard had defeated Princeton the previous weekend in the Bronze Medal Match, 4-2, and the team had not lost to Yale since 1984.

But this weekend was different. The Tigers erupted for five goals in the third period on Saturday, quickly turning a close game into a blowout, while the Elis almost tied a game that they had little business being in.

"I think that part of it is that we're a young team and not used to playing with each other," Harvard coach Katey Stone said. "We didn't play with our heads up in the third period."

That was especially true against Princeton, as the Tigers' Karen Chernisky scored twice and Ali Coughlin once in the first 5:08 of the third period, exploding Princeton's lead from one goal to four. The Tigers knocked in two goals after that, making the score 8-2.

The third period, however, was nothing like the first two, which were extremely evenly-played. Freshman Tammy Shewchuck and Princeton's Alexis Scott each tallied scores within 1:40 of each other of the first period, and after sophomore Kyle Walsh regained the lead for the Crimson 17 seconds into the second period, Princeton retied it 15 minutes after that.

That was the end of the back-and-forth play, however, as Princeton took control of the game in the third.

Yale also fared better in the third period than in the first and second. After Harvard took a 2-0 lead on Shewchuck goals in each of the first two periods, Yale picked up more and more momentum, pulling within a goal and ending the game with one of its strongest offensive surges of the day.

The first two periods were all Harvard, as the Crimson outshot its opponents 20-7 and controlled every inch of the ice. Yale goalie Laurie Belliveau was solid in net, allowing goals on a straight-on breakaway and a deflection, but Harvard dominated the other five Yale skaters. Even if the Elis were on a power play, they still did not get many shots off.

But with seven minutes in the third, Yale's Joni Kletter bulled a shot past junior Harvard goalie Jen Bowdoin. Both teams had chances to score later in the game, but neither could do so. Princeton  8 Harvard  2

Yale  1 Harvard  2

Yale  1 Harvard  2