Harvard Destroys Brown 5-0

Showing no letdown from its victory over No. 1 Dartmouth on Saturday, the No. 3 Harvard women's hockey team blew out No. 6 Brown, 5-0, at Bright last night.

The Crimson (18-7-0, 17-3-0 ECAC) scored three first-period goals, which was more than enough offense for freshman goaltender Jessica Ruddock, who stopped 37 shots against the Bears (15-5-3, 12-5-3) to earn her second career shutout.

"We were ready to go," said senior winger Kiirsten Suurkask. "We just came off a big win against Dartmouth and we were ready to beat whomever was in our path."

Suurkask started off the Harvard scoring just 5:13 in the game. Remeniscent of the Dartmouth game on Saturday, junior co-captain Jennifer Botterill fired the puck across the net from the right of the goal to set up Harvard's first score. Suurkask drove the cross home from the opposite side for the 1-0 lead.

Just 1:26 later, sophomore winger Kalen Ingram deflected a high shot from the blue line by senior defenseman Jaime Notman into the net to put Harvard ahead 2-0. The Crimson was passing the puck at will in the Brown zone immediately preceding the goal, while the Bear defenders effectively stood and watched.

"[Brown] is very much a grind-it-out, dump-and-chase team," said Harvard Coach Katey Stone. "Sometimes you do have the tendency to stand around, especially when our kids were moving around pretty well, despite all the interference and the physical contact."

Suurkask tallied again at the 19:50 mark--her fourth goal in three contests following a 17-game scoring draught--to give Harvard a convincing 3-0 lead going into the locker room. She received a pass from sophomore linemate Tracy Catlin in the slot and fired a backhand through the five-hole of Brown goalie Pam Dryer.

Botterill assisted on all three Harvard goals in the period.

Brown dominated the majority of the second period, keeping the puck in the Harvard end for most of the first 15 minutes.

"For 15 minutes I thought Brown was all over us," Stone said. "I think they got a whipping in the locker room between the first and second periods. They came out flying, and we have the tendency to lapse at the beginning of periods sometimes. We've got to get ourselves out of that."

Harvard was able to preserve its three-goal lead thanks to Ruddock, who stopped every Brown scoring opportunity, including a few breakaways and hard wrist shots from point-blank range.

"Some days you get lucky on the shutout, but [Ruddock] had to come up with a very solid performance in the net today to earn it," Stone said. "Today Jessica kept us in it, but you can't count on that. We've got to do a better job in our defensive zone of controlling the play."

A hard-earned goal by Catlin at the 12:19 mark of the third put Harvard up 4-0. Senior center Tara Dunn set up the scoring chance by slipping the puck past the Brown defense towards Catlin streaking down ice. Dreyer raced out of the net and nearly stopped the scoring chance, but Catlin dived and poked the puck past her. Catlin spun into the wall as her shot lit the lamp.

Senior forward Tammy Shewchuk scored the final Harvard goal 34 seconds before game's end. She raced towards the blue line to receive a feed from Ingram, then spun around and walked in on the breakaway to extend the lead to 5-0.

It was Harvard's largest margin of victory over Brown since the 1986-87 season. The Crimson is 5-0-1 against Brown since the third game of 1998-99--Harvard's only defeat of the national championship season. In the one tie, the Crimson blew a three-goal third-period lead. Harvard has dominated Brown like no other team in the league.

"Brown's been a nemesis," Suurkask said. "My sophomore year they're the only team that beat us. It's just a big game every time we play them"

In the final seconds, Ruddock and Brown winger Kristy Zamora--who Ruddock had stuffed on a breakaway earlier that night--exchanged shots and earned matching penalties. But the Bears' frustration could not buy them a goal.

With the victory, Harvard moves just a point back of Dartmouth in the ECAC Standings with four games left to go in the regular season. The Crimson will resume its schedule on the road this weekend against No. 9 Northeastern and No. 10 Providence.