Women's Hockey Splits on the Weekend

After a three week layoff that included winter vacation, the Harvard women's hockey team returned to action rested and somewhat rusty but turned around its recent woes and watched a milestone in the process.

The Crimson split its first series of the new year, falling to No. 3 St. Lawrence, 3-2, on Saturday and defeating Cornell 5-3 yesterday at Bright Hockey Center.

The No.5 Crimson (9-6-0, 9-2-0 ECAC) failed to complete the regular season sweep of the Saints, having already defeated St. Lawrence (10-3-3, 7-1-2 ECAC) 2-1 on its home ice on Dec. 3.

However, Harvard completed its sweep of the Big Red (5-8-1, 3-8-1 ECAC), beating Cornell1 3-1.

A victory against St. Lawrence would have given the Crimson sole possesion of first place in the ECAC, since No.1 Dartmouth fell to No. 8 Northeastern on Friday.

Its win against Cornell did move Harvard into the top spot, but the Crimson could eventually be overtaken by Dartmouth, Northeastern or St. Lawrence. All have played fewer conference games.

The highlight of the weekend came yesterday against the Big Red, when Crimson senior forward Tammy Shewchuk broke former teammate A.J. Mleczko's '99 record for career scoring.

Shewchuck scored her 258th career point, passing Mleczko's mark of 257.

Harvard 5, Cornell 3

The Crimson struggled against the Big Red throughout the first two periods, but used a third period rally to surge past struggling Cornell and snap a three-game losing streak.

Harvard lost a pair of games at Minnesota-Duluth before the winter break and lost to St. Lawrence on Saturday before breaking the slump against Cornell yesterday.

The Crimson did it by scoring three goals in the final stanza, including Shewchuk's record-breaking goal with five minutes left in the game.

The game-winning goal came from the hand of junior co-captain Jennifer Botterill, who scored her second goal of the game to give Harvard a 4-3 lead.

At the 6:57 mark of the third period, Botterill took a pass from senior defenseman Jamie Notman and moved towards the net from the left side.

Botterill cut across the crease and shot from the backhand, but Cornell goalie Sonya Sandahl deflected the attempt. Botterill recovered the rebound and stuffed it under Sandahl to give Harvard the lead for good.

The Crimson's next goal was a milestone.

After Sandahl saved a shot from Crimson sophomore forward Kalen Ingram, Shewchuk, who was set up on the left side, retrieved the rebound and shot a wrister beneath Sandahl to put the Crimson up 5-3.

The goal was Shewcuk's second point of the game.

"I feel a little bit of relief," Shewchuk said. "These past few games that's all I've been hearing about, and it's nice to finally get it over with."

Shewchuk played for Harvard when Mleczko set the mark, and was on the ice when her former teammate set the record.

"I felt so awesome for her," Shewchuck said. "Hopefully I'll be here when somebody breaks mine."

Cornell opened the scoring in the game when forward Erica Olson stole the puck and went on a breakaway against Crimson freshman goalie Jessica Ruddock. Olson drew Ruddock to the right side and shot to the left into the wide open net to give Cornell the 1-0 lead.

Harvard answered early in the second period when Botterill took a pass from Shewchuk and beat Sandahl to tie the game at 1-1.

Four minutes later, co-captain Angie Francisco gave the Crimson the brief advantage.

Francisco came flying down the right side and drew Sandahl out of the net. Francisco then moved the puck to the backhand and went top-shelf over Sandahl's left shoulder to make the score 2-1.

The Big Red evened the game with three minutes left in the second. Olson retrieved a rebound and shot it past a sprawling Ruddock to tie the game at 2-2.

Cornell lit the lamp once again before the end of the period, this time on a 2-on-1 chance.

Big Red forward Lindsay Murao approached Ruddock from the right and Olson came with the puck from the left. Olson passed to Murao, who beat Ruddock cross-body and gave Cornell the 3-2 lead at the end of the period.

It was Ingram who began the Crimson's third period assault, retreiving a puck from behind the net and moving untouched to the front of Sandahl. Ingram moved to the backhand and went five-hole on Sandahl to tie the game at 3-3.

"It was important we got that goal early in the period," Ingram said. "That really started our momentum going."

Harvard enjoyed good games from Botterill, who scored two goals and had an assist, and from Shewchuk, who scored a goal and had an assist aside from setting the record.

St.Lawrence 3, Harvard 2

The Saints used great goaltending and solid defense to hand the Crimson what was its third straight loss on Saturday.

The game-winning goal for St. Lawrence came at the 6:35 mark of the third period.

Saint forward Jessica Wilson broke loose behind the Crimson defense and attacked down the right side. Ruddock moved to cut off the angle but Wilson shot towards the left side of the net and found an opening to make the score 3-2.

Harvard had a chance to tie the game with four seconds left, having a faceoff in the St. Lawrence zone. The Crimson won the face off and Botterill recovered the puck and shot into the traffic in front of the net. The puck slid a few inches wide of the left pole and Harvard fell 3-2.

"We practiced that play all week," Harvard coach Katey Stone said. "We put ourselves in a position to tie and can't be disappointed with our effort."

The Crimson was ahead 2-1 entering the third period, but wasn't able to hold the lead as the Saints scored two unanswered goals to steal the victory.

"We used four lines and short shifts to try to overwhelm them physically, to try and tire them out," St. Lawrence coach Paul Flanagan said. "They're a well-coached and explosive team, and we can't hang with their top two lines offensivley, but we got the break we needed in the third."

Although Harvard was ahead 2-1 entering the final frame, the lead could have been much greater if not for the Saints' freshman goaltender Rachel Barrie.

In the first period, the Crimson recorded 16 shots on net, compared to only four for St. Lawrence, but still trailed 1-0. This was due to the efforts of Barrie.

Throughout the first period, Harvard continually assaulted the net with a barrage of shots, only to be denied by Barrie's solid play. Barrie allowed many rebounds, only to stop the Crimson in its attempts to shoot them into the net.

Barrie did allow two goals, but one was on the power play and the other on a short-handed breakaway.

Botterill scored with the man-advantage early in the second off a pass from Francisco, who saw Botterill sitting in front of the net. Botterill took the pass and shot the puck under Barrie to tie game at 1-1.

"It was a beautiful pass that allowed me to make a good play," Botterill said. "I was right in the open and she managed to find me."

Shewchuk tallied nine minutes later with St. Lawrence on the power play. Botterill stole the puck and raced down the left side as Shewchuk flew down the right wing.

Botterill drew Barrie towards the left and then passed to Shewchuk, who had the open net. Barrie managed to get back in position and Shewchuk had to go high over Barrie's left shoulder to give Harvard the 2-1 lead.

"Jen and I know where each other are on the ice all the time," Shewchuk said. "She made a fantastic pass and I was able to take advantage."

However, that was all the Crimson would manage.

Barrie faced eight shots in the third period and stopped them all to preserve the St. Lawrence victory.

"They have a great goaltender," Stone said. "St. Lawrence is a team that takes a lot of chances, but when you have someone who is so sharp and solid behind the net, you can take a lot more chances."

Harvard outshot the Saints 35-21 and went 1-for-4 on the power play. Ruddock faced 21 shots and stopped 18 of them but suffered the loss.

The Crimson's next game will be this Friday at home against Northeastern, who will be coming off its shocking 4-0 upset of Dartmouth.