Team U.S.A. Handles W. Hockey in Exhibition

Any game played by the Harvard women's hockey team is guaranteed to produce plenty of goals and, most of the time, a blowout for the heavily favored team.

That's exactly what happened Friday night at Bright Hockey Center, only this time it was the Crimson which found itself on the short end of a 9-2 rout before 1,411.

No. 2 Harvard fell to the U.S. Women's Select Team, which featured nine players from the gold-medal winning 1998 U.S. Olympic Team, in an exhibition game.

Team USA is playing eight Division I college teams this season in preparation for the 2000 IHF Women's World Championship in Toronto in April. The Americans' offense exploded against Harvard after beating Princeton, a more defensive-minded team, 6-1.

"Harvard is a run-and-gun team and that's how they played," said Team USA Coach Ben Smith '68. "But tonight they were trying to do that against kids who could run-and-gun along with them."

U.S. winger Erin Magee, who suffered three blowout losses to Harvard last year while playing for Boston College, got more than enough revenge as she finished a hat trick less than 15 minutes into the second. She staked out her territory around the goal--all three goals came on rebounds that she grabbed around the crease before finding open holes in the Harvard net.

"Erin Magee toiled in obscurity at Boston College, but she has always had soft hands and she can really handle the puck in tight quarters," Smith said. "She's been quiet this year because I've been stressing her to work on defense, but it's nice to see her get more comfortable on the offensive end."

Harvard received two power-play opportunities, and the Crimson cashed in both times.

Receiving the puck from junior winger Angie Francisco behind the net, classmate Tammy Shewchuk fed sophomore center Jen Botterill--Shewchuk's teammate on the Canadian National Team--in the slot. Botterill maneuvered around one defenseman before firing a shot past U.S. goaltender Sarah Teuting at 16:45 of the first period.

A roughing penalty against U.S. defenseman Nicki Luongo--the runner-up to new teammate A.J. Mleczko '99 for last season's Patty Kazmaier Award--gave Harvard another man-advantage. This time, Shewchuk raced down the right wing to fire a shot on Erin Whitten, the Americans' second netminder of the game, and junior center Kiirsten Suurkask knocked in the rebound.

However, Team USA outshot Harvard, 41-14. In addition to Magee's hat trick, the Americans also got goals from Katie King, Stephanie O'Sullivan, Melissa Heizman and Karen Bye.

The highlight for the Crimson came with six seconds left in the game, long after the outcome had been decided, when senior defenseman Christie MacKinnon was called for covering the puck in the crease, giving the Americans a penalty shot. But sophomore goaltender Alison Kuusisto stuffed Meaghan Sittler, Team USA's third-line center, to keep the score in single-digits.

"The kids were energized tonight," said Harvard Coach Katey Stone. "It was a fast-paced game and they played hard for 60 minutes. They had a ball."

This exhibition game was a homecoming for both Smith and Mleczko, who returned to Bright for the first time since helping to unveil the 1998-99 AWCHA national championship banner along with co-captain Claudia Asano '99 in the season opener. Team USA is currently missing several defensemen, who are taking their high school exams, and Mleczko is filling in at the blueline, so Harvard's career points leader was unable to score against her alma mater.

"During warm-ups and line changes I kept skating to the Harvard bench," said Mleczko, who set the single-season women's hockey record with 114 points en route to last year's national championship. "When I heard everyone cheering for Harvard the words were on the tip of my tongue, and it was fun to see so many familiar faces."

Another reason Mleczko played defense was that Harvard sophomore Angela Ruggiero, a gold medalist in 1998, is currently playing for the Crimson--Smith decided that no collegiate players would be on the select roster this year since the team is training in residence at Lake Placid. Ruggiero assisted on one of the Harvard goals against her other teammates.

"It was fun playing a game where I knew everyone on both teams," said Ruggiero, who did not wear her usual stars-and-stripes bandana. "Tonight was great for us to play at the level of the national team because it gives us a chance to see and imitate good hockey."

Ruggiero and her Harvard teammates will practice today and tomorrow, then break until Dec. 29. When the team (10-2-1, 8-2-1 ECAC) returns to Cambridge just before New Year's, it will begin preparing for what should be the toughest conference road trip of the season: games at No. 8 Providence and No. 1 Northeastern on Jan. 8 and 9, respectively.