W. Hockey Returns to Winning Ways, Downs UConn

The Harvard women’s hockey team snapped a two-game losing streak with a much-needed 3-1 win at Connecticut last night. The Crimson improved to 6-6-1 for the season.

“We definitely needed a win coming off a rough weekend,” said junior center Kalen Ingram. “There’s still a lot of work to be done though. I don’t think we played to the top of our ability.”

Although UConn (7-8-1) lacked the ECAC experience and the national ranking of the Crimson’s weekend spoilers, No. 4 Northeastern and No. 8 Niagara, the Huskies had proven their ability by upending No. 6 New Hampshire in a shutout win earlier this season.

Ingram ended any Husky hopes of a shutout with 2:14 left in the first, however. On a broken play from the blue line, Ingram received the puck and took a long shot from the left faceoff circle that beat UConn goaltender Shannon Murphy high stick-side.

Junior captain Jaime Hagerman and freshman winger Nicole Corriero earned the assists.

Ingram came into the night leading the nation in assists-per-game, but her goal was only her second of the season. That statistic has gone largely unnoticed as Corriero has led the nation in goal-scoring thus far.

“Our line has been producing so I haven’t been all that concerned about [scoring],” Ingram said. “But hopefully it will come easier now.”

Corriero earned her second assist of the night 2:48 into the second period on the power play when she gathered the puck in the corner following a Husky turnover and found junior winger Tracy Catlin open in front for the finish.

Murphy would not allow the Crimson any more insurance goals, however, and then with 1:38 left, UConn freshman Kimberly Berry cut the deficit to one by scoring a power-play goal off a deflection.

The Husky comeback bid brought back bad memories of the game against No. 2 Minnesota when Harvard lost in regulation despite leading 2-0 with four minutes remaining.

But there would not be another disaster tonight. Corriero scored an empty-netter with 12 seconds left to ice the game. That score extended her goal-scoring streak to five games, and upped her nation-best goal-scoring total to 16. It was also Corriero’s fifth three-point game this season.

Ingram credited sophomore winger Mina Pell, who played her third straight game with time on the top line, for some of the team’s success.

“She’s a smart player,” Ingram said. “She’s small but she’s tough. We needed a good, hard forechecker.”

Though UConn is making its debut season in the ECAC, its coach, Heather Linstad, is by no means a neophyte. She led Harvard’s Beanpot rival Northeastern to the ECAC championships in 1997 and several more successful seasons before leaving for UConn two years ago. Of the four new ECAC teams, hers has been by far the most successful.

Linstad has the Huskies using a trapping style of play, which managed to frustrate a team like UNH, but it wasn’t enough to beat the Crimson.

“They kept us in the neutral zone well,” Hagerman said. “I think they wanted to tire us out because they kept on dumping the puck and forcing us to make mistakes.”

Harvard managed a more successful defensive outing then it had this weekend, but there was still room for improvement.

“We did a fair job of keeping them outside, but we didn’t pick up trailers as much as we should have,” Hagerman said. “We’re going to have to do that when we play UNH on Friday.”

Senior Alison Kuusisto earned the victory in net after making 25 saves, including a stop on a near-breakaway from the Huskies in the first period.

“Hats off to Ali for playing a great game,” Hagerman said. “And that one goal was something she couldn’t have prepared for.”

Harvard’s next two games at UNH (11-3-1) at 7 p.m. on Friday and Maine (7-7-1) at 2 p.m. on Sunday are its last non-conference games outside of the Beanpot. The Crimson has won all six games in its school history against Maine and eight straight against UNH. Though the Wildcats have a higher national ranking, they have no wins against teams in the current top 10.