W. Hockey Begins Home Stretch as No. 1

Last season the Harvard women's hockey team held to form nearly every game held to form as the Harvard women's hockey team rolled to its first national championship. This year has been full of shocking events, but at the halfway point the Crimson finds itself still holding the No. 1 ranking and in good shape to make another run at the AWCHA national championship.

Harvard (13-2-2, 11-2-2 ECAC) has lost the top ranking twice this season, but reclaimed it each time with victories over New Hampshire and Northeastern. The Crimson has not lost a game since the Thanksgiving weekend, but it has not been able to get the job done in overtime. Last season Harvard was 5-0-0 in the extra period--this year it is 0-1-2.

The top forward line continues to lead the way. Junior wingers Tammy Shewchuk (21 goals, 19 assists) and Angie Francisco (14 g, 26 a) and sophomore center Jen Botterill (15 g, 17 a) are three of the ECAC's top six scorers. Sophomore defenseman Angela Ruggiero (11 g, 18 a) leads the conference in scoring from the blueline.

Harvard, which has not played since Jan. 15, will begin next semester with a difficult schedule. The Crimson will host two ranked teams, No. 5 Northeastern and No. 8 Providence, Feb. 5 and 6 before traveling to No. 7 Dartmouth--which beat Harvard Nov. 12--the next weekend. After that, Harvard will likely play the Huskies for the third time in the Beanpot championship game, which will be at Bright, Feb. 15.

The Crimson averages 4.76 goals a game--second in the ECAC. As talented as the Harvard offense is, however, opponents have been able to keep things close into the third period and challenge for a tie or a win. More teams have assembled enough firepower to challenge for the championship.

The perennial contender is No. 2 New Hampshire (15-4-0, 11-4-0 ECAC), which took Harvard to overtime in the championship games of both the ECAC and AWCHA tournaments last season. UNH avenged an earlier loss to Northeastern by destroying the Huskies Jan. 15, 9-1. Senior forward Carisa Zaban (22 g, 23 a) leads the conference in scoring, and classmate Samantha Holmes (22 g, 16 a) is fourth.

But the Wildcats have struggled at times. UNH lost to Harvard and Northeastern in November, and it was stunned at home by St. Lawrence Jan. 7. Last Saturday the Wildcats, who have the highest-scoring offense in the ECAC, were shut out at Dartmouth.

UNH's biggest question marks are in the defensive zone, where Coach Karen Kay has yet to replace All-American defenseman Nicki Luongo (who is now a teammate of A.J. Mleczko '99 on the U.S. Select Team). Senior goaltender Alicia Roberts (1.80 goals-against average), who set a school-record for saves against Harvard in last year's national championship game, is now splitting time with freshman Jen Huggon (1.46 GAA).

The Wildcats are second in the ECAC, trailing Harvard by two points. But UNH will take two weeks off from conference play to face three WCHA teams: St. Cloud State, No. 6 Minnesota and No. 3 Minnesota-Duluth.

UNH will be the first eastern test for Minnesota-Duluth (19-0-1, 16-0-0 WCHA). UMD is averaging 7.11 goals a game thanks to a host of players with international experience. Sophomore Jenny Schmidgall (31 g, 34 a) and rookie Maria Rooth (25 g, 22 a) are the two highest scorers in the nation.

Freshman Erika Holst (18 g, 16 a) is eighth in the WCHA in scoring. Schmidgall won a gold medal with the 1998 U.S. Olympic Team. Rooth and Holst were also in Nagano as members of Team Sweden.

The Bulldogs have looked impressive against the WCHA, which features five first-year programs and only one team--Minnesota--which has been competitive against the best of the ECAC in past years. The Bulldogs edged the Gophers in two games at Minneapolis in December, 5-4 and 1-0.

And UMD struggled against Princeton, the only ECAC team it has played thus far. The unranked Tigers tied the Bulldogs, 2-2, before losing 3-0. The only ranked teams left on UMD's schedule are UNH and Minnesota, which it will play the first two weekends of February.

No. 4 Brown (10-2-3, 9-1-3 ECAC) may have played its best hockey of the season in an exhibition game last Saturday. The U.S. Select Team had been destroying every collegiate team it played, but the Bears took Team USA to overtime before a goal by Laurie Baker gave the Americans a 5-4 victory.

Playing one of the best offenses in the world, senior goaltender Ali Brewer (1.57 GAA) made 49 saves. Baker's score was the first goal Brewer has allowed in overtime this season. A finalist for last year's Patty Kazmaier Award, Brewer has shut out Harvard, Northeastern and Providence in sudden death.

As good as Brewer is, she needs her teammates to put the puck in the net more on offense. Brown's best skater is junior defenseman Tara Mounsey (11 g, 5 a), but she has not been able to score much from the blueline. Senior forwards Jill Graat (7 g, 7 a) and Tamra Jones (6 g, 6 a) have to generate more goals for the Bears to have a shot at the title.

If Brown sweeps a two-game series at seventh-place Niagara (14-6-1, 7-6-1 ECAC) this weekend, the Bears will move into first place in the conference. After that things will get much tougher as six of Brown's eight opponents in February are nationally ranked.