W. Hockey Eyeing Big Red, Saints

The Harvard women's hockey team hopes to return to its winning ways in its first two home games this weekend and get back into the hunt for the ECAC championship.

"This weekend is really important for us," junior forward Kim McManama said. "If we come out of it with two wins, we'll be right where we want to be."

No. 2 Brown (1-0-1, 1-0-1 ECAC) beat the Crimson, 4-2, last Sunday in Providence and swapped rankings with Harvard (3-1-0, 1-1-0 ECAC), who fell to No. 3 in the U.S. College Hockey Online poll. The loss also snapped Harvard's three-game winning streak and dropped the Crimson into a four-way tie for seventh place in the ECAC.

But Harvard still has high expectations after the first weekend of conference play. The Crimson will play the St. Lawrence Saints (1-3-0, 1-3-0 ECAC) tonight at 7:30 p.m. and the Cornell Big Red (3-1-0, 3-1-0 ECAC) tomorrow night at 7 p.m. Both games are at the Bright Hockey Center.

"We are going to play with more confidence this week, especially after our first loss, and it was an Ivy League loss," senior Jen Gerometta said. "We have to give everything we have this weekend because we have five days off next week and we don't want to go into the break with two more losses."

The Big Red moved into the No. 8 spot in the USCHO poll this week by winning its first three games under first-year coach Carol Mullins before losing to No. 6 Princeton, 3-2, last Sunday.

Mullins has relied on a goalkeeping tandem of seniors Alanna Hayes and Melissa Junkala to anchor the defense, which has give up six goals in four games. Both goalies have played two full games. Junkala, who has won both contests she started in, is second in the conference in save percentage at .962 and third in goals against average at 1.00.

But the Crimson's potent offense will give Hayes and Junkala a challenge. Harvard dominated the action in its three wins over No. 5 Minnesota, Mankato State and No. 7 Providence, outscoring its opponents by a combined score of 19-2.

The Crimson has one of the best power play units in the conference with sophomores Angie Francisco and Tammy Shewchuk joining three former Olympians in co-captain A.J. Mleczko and freshmen Angela Ruggiero and Jen Botterill. Botterill, Mleczko and Francisco and tied for fifth in the ECAC with eight points each while Ruggiero and Shewchuck are tied for 15th in the conference with six points apiece.

But the Crimson gets offense from all four lines. 1997-98 Ivy League Rookie of the Year Shewchuck returned from an injury last week and played at Providence and Brown, tallying one assist, Sophomore Tara Dunn has five points, McManama has three points and Gerometta and sophomore Julie Rando each have two points.

However, both the Big Red and the Saints have also lit up the scoreboard this season. Cornell has 16 goals in four games, while St. Lawrence has tallied 18, also in four games.

For the Big Red, junior forward Alison Stewart is the general of the offense with one goal and five assists. Captain Morag McPherson, junior Colette Bredin and freshman Erinn Perushek have chipped in four points each for the Big Red.

The Saints rely on a trio of sophomore forwards for the bulk of their scoring. Caroline Trudeau is fourth in the ECAC in points with four goals and five assists, Suzanne Fiacco has seven points and Nicole Kirnan has six points for St. Lawrence.

These statistics may be inflated, however, because both teams recorded lopsided victories over Yale (0-2-0, 0-2-0 ECAC), who is tied for last place. The Saints clobbered the Bulldogs by a score of 7-1 while the Big Red trounced the Elis, 6-0. Cornell's best win of the season was a 2-1 OT win over then-No. 7 Dartmouth.

In any case, Harvard will look to improve its defense from last weekend's loss to Brown. The Bears poured in 28 shots on goal and exposed Harvard's inexperienced defensive zone coverage by scoring four goals. If the Crimson can become more efficient in the defensive zone, Harvard will deny a lot of scoring chances for opponents and give its potent offense opportunities to pepper rival goalies with shots.

"We've been spending all kinds of time on our defensive zone coverage," head coach Katey Stone said. "That's really our focus because we've got to take care of our own house before we go knocking on anybody else's door. We made some critical errors on Sunday that Brown took advantage of. However, we've been making the same errors in the three previous games and, fortunately, we didn't get stung by them."

The Crimson only scored two goals against Brown, but not because of an offensive breakdown. Harvard pelted Brown's Ali Brewer with 48 shots, 27 of which came in the third period. But Brewer, the 1998 ECAC Tournament MVP, made 46 saves en route to being named the ECAC Goaltender of the Week.

Brewer's defense allowed Brown to attack the Harvard goal with a former Olympian of its own, sophomore defenseman Tara Mounsey. Mounsey had two assists and showed that, as talented as the Crimson is this season, there are other teams to be reckoned with in the ECAC.

"If there was ever a good `bad' lesson, it was at Brown," Stone said. "We're going to get plenty of shots and plenty of scoring chances, but we have got to make sure that we don't precede the play and get to anxious to get on offense. We've got to take care of our defense and then go from there.

"We're still very young, despite the Olympic experience," Stone said. "We need to go one step at a time. We have defined kids' roles a little bit more this week so that they know exactly what is expected of them. They get a little anxious when they get a little enthusiasm and momentum going, and they feel like they can do more than they should be doing."

The Harvard players will have Yale on their minds as this is the first time Gerometta and her senior teammates will be able to attend The Game. But they are ready to avenge their loss at Brown and move up in the ECAC standings.

"If we do all the things that we do well, we will be fine," Stone said. "We need to start picking it up and changing gears. I don't think they liked the way it felt on the way home on Sunday. But I think it was good for our kids to feel what it's like to come in second and realize that they don't want to feel that way very often."

"We need to come out strong from the start," McManama said. "We did that against Providence and scored four goals in the first period and we need to do that this weekend. We didn't do that against Brown because we were sitting back on our heels, but we've learned a lot from that game and we play them again and I'm sure that we'll win next time."