W. Hockey Faces B.C., No. 6 Dartmouth

There are still three days left in February but, for the No. 1 Harvard women's hockey team, March Madness begins tomorrow when No. 6 Dartmouth skates into the Bright Hockey Center at 2 p.m.

By extending the nation's longest winning streak to 21 games with wins at Cornell and St. Lawrence last weekend, Harvard (24-1-0, 20-1-1 ECAC) clinched the ECAC regular season title. That earned the Crimson an invitation to the American Women's College Hockey Alliance National Championship Tournament at the University of Minnesota March 26 and 27.

In the meantime, however, the Crimson still has four regular season games left to play, including Dartmouth (14-6-4, 13-5-4) and Boston College (8-18-2, 4-16-2) at Bright this weekend.

"We know we're going to the tournament but we aren't going to think about Minnesota this weekend," said senior forward Jen Gerometta. "We don't want to look back at the end of the year knowing we lost our last four games of the regular season. We've earned a trip to Minnesota, but we still want to win the Ivies and the ECACs, so we need to win these games."

The hottest team in the ECAC behind Harvard, however, might be Dartmouth. The Big Green is coming off a 4-3 upset of No. 3 New Hampshire last Sunday and has won its last six games. Since suffering a 4-2 loss to Harvard in Hanover Dec. 19, Dartmouth has compiled a 9-1-2 ECAC record.

Dartmouth is currently in fifth place in the conference with 30 points, and an upset over the Crimson would put the Big Green into the race for one of the last three home playoff games in the first round of the ECAC Tournament.

The Dartmouth offense is led by senior forward Kathleen O'Keefe (8 g, 22 a) and sophomore forward Jennifer Wiehn (16, 12). The Big Green also has a threat from the blue line in Correne Bredin (5, 21), who scored the game-winner against New Hampshire and is second amongst ECAC freshmen defensemen in scoring.

Dartmouth is also fifth in the ECAC in both offense (4.08 goals a game) and defense (2.04 goals per contest). Sophomore goaltender Meaghan Cahill has a 2.24 goals against average (GAA) and a .906 save percentage.

Cahill will face the nation's most explosive offense at Bright. The Crimson top forward line boasts the three highest scorers in the country in co-captain A.J. Mleczko (24, 61), freshman Jen Botterill (30, 40) and sophomore Tammy Shewchuk (33, 36). Harvard also has freshman Angela Ruggiero (17, 30), who leads all defensemen in the nation in scoring.

Now that it can officially prepare for the postseason, the Crimson would like to see continued improvement from its second wave of scorers in sophomore forwards Angie Francisco (10, 27), Tara Dunn (17, 8) and Kiirsten Suurkask (8, 15).

Harvard also needs to improve its play in the defensive zone. Although the Crimson leads the ECAC with an offense that averages 6.52 goals a game, Harvard has given up two goals in each of the last four contests to raise the team GAA to 1.48 goals a game.

Sunday Harvard hosts Boston College, which sits in 12th place in the ECAC and has been eliminated from the playoff race. Eagle senior forward Erin MaGee (24, 26) and sophomore forward Jennifer Buckley (14, 21) are tied for ninth and 16th in the conference in scoring, respectively.

The Eagles are sixth in the ECAC in scoring with 3.64 goals per game but give up 4.75 goals per contest, good for the second-worst defense in the conference. Junior goaltender Christy Nentwig has a 4.57 GAA and a .882 save percentage.

Harvard has defeated Boston College twice this season--7-1 at Chestnut Hill and 9-0 in the Beanpot championship game.

In addition to facing the Big Green and the Golden Eagles, Harvard's six seniors will be skating in regular season games at Bright for the last time this weekend.

"These games will be special for the seniors because it will be the last time to wear our home uniforms in the regular season," Gerometta said. "It really means a lot to have a winning record for the first time in our careers. And home games have been great over the last month with all the fans that we've had."

Notes

By clinching the regular season title, Harvard guaranteed itself a home game for the first round of the ECAC Tournament. The Crimson will host the eighth seed at Bright on March 13.

However, this weekend is the last chance of the season for Harvard fans to see freshmen sensations Ruggiero (a nominee for the Patty Kazmaier Award for most outstanding player in the nation) and Botterill, the reigning ECAC Rookie of the Week. After this weekend, Ruggiero and Botterill will travel to Finland to compete in the World Championships for the United States and Canadian national teams, respectively, and will miss the last two games of the regular season--at No. 8 Princeton and Yale--and the quarterfinal at Bright.

Mleczko has a chance to shatter yet another school record this weekend. She needs four points to tie the single-season scoring record of 89 points set by Athletic Director Bill Cleary '56. She trails Scott Fusco '86 by 12 points for the school career scoring record.