Women's Hockey Rolls Against No. 8 UNH and Maine

Dartmouth has not won the conference title just yet.

The Harvard women's hockey team swept its weekend series, defeating No.8 UNH 4-1 on Saturday and crushing Maine 5-1 yesterday at Bright Hockey Center.

With No.4 St. Lawrence falling to Niagara on Saturday, the No.5 Crimson (13-6-0, 13-2-0 ECAC) gained sole possession of second place in the conference.

The Crimson now stands seven points behind the No.1 Big Green for the ECAC lead, but Dartmouth has three games in hand over Harvard. Both teams will meet in two weeks in a game that could potentially decide the ECAC regular season title.

Harvard 5, Maine 1

The Black Bears (10-11-1, 5-10-1) were unable to mount any substantial attack on the Crimson.

Harvard had no problem.

The Crimson overwhelmed Maine's defense by blasting 67 shots on goal en route to a 5-1 victory over the Black Bears yesterday afternoon.

"We had great puck movement today," Harvard coach Katey Stone said. "If not for a great effort by their goaltender, they would have been in a lot of trouble out there."

The Crimson's game-winning goal came by the hand of senior defenseman Jamie Notman.

One minute into the second period, Notman took a pass from sophomore forward Kalen Ingram and stood at the blueline. Notman then fired a bouncing puck into the traffic in front of the net. The puck skipped under Maine goaltender Amanda Cronin and gave the Crimson a 2-0 lead.

Ingram opened the scoring just 24 seconds into the game, taking the puck off the faceoff and stuffing it under Cronin to put Harvard up 1-0. This was the Crimson's only score of the first period, but not due to a lack of effort.

Harvard outshot the Black Bears 21-5 in the opening frame.

"We really dominated offensively," Ingram said. "Sometimes we sort of lose it a bit and give up some chances, but today we played great in the defensive zone."

After Notman's goal in the second stanza, sophomore forward Tracy Catlin tallied the Crimson's third goal five minutes later.

Catlin, standing in front of the net, deflected a shot from Notman and guided it under Cronin to make the score 3-0.

Three minutes later, Ingram tallied for the second time in the game, this time off a pass from junior co-captain Jennifer Botterill. Ingram took the pass and fired a rocket from the blueline that sneaked past Cronin, who was screened by the Crimson players in front of the net.

Harvard recorded 23 shots on goal in the second frame, while Maine only had five.

Harvard did not score again until early in the third, when Catlin also tallied for the second time in the game.

Catlin split the defenders in front of the net and fired high over Cronin's left shoulder, giving Harvard the 5-1 lead.

In the final period, the Crimson shot on net 23 times, while the Black Bears only managed nine shots.

On the offensive end, Botterill's streak of three consecutive games with a hat trick came to an end, and it was only the second time this season that Botterill has been held without a goal. She finished with three assists.

Cronin made 62 saves for the Black Bears, while freshman goaltender Jessica Ruddock played her second consecutive solid game, making 18 saves in 19 chances.

Harvard played for the second consecutive day without co-captain Angie Francisco, who is suffering from mono and is out indefinitely.

Harvard 4, UNH 1

On Tuesday, Botterill and senior forward Tammy Shewchuk were named to the list of ten finalists for player of the year. Saturday, both players made it perfectly clear why they both deserved to be on that list.

Hours after getting off a plane back from her commitments with Team Canada, Botterill scored a hat trick, and Shewchuk assisted on all four Crimson goals as Harvard rolled to a 4-1 victory over UNH (14-13-0, 10-8-0).

"[Botterill] had something to prove today," Stone said. "She didn't miss a step coming back."

It took less than a minute of hockey for the star pair to make their presence felt.

Just 34 seconds into the contest, Shewchuk skated free toward the Wildcat right faceoff circle.

After drawing the UNH defense over to her, she then fired a perfect pass to Botterill, who was alone right at the opposite post. Wildcats goaltender Jennifer Huggon appeared to make a diving save on Botterill's shot, but the puck trickled under her stick and just crossed the goal line.

Despite allowing the early goal, UNH controlled play for much of the first period. Although Harvard took advantage of occasional UNH turnovers, it was unable to create any sustained pressure in the Wildcat zone.

Instead, it was UNH that created offensive pressure late in the first period.

The Wildcats won three successive faceoffs in the Crimson zone--two by faceoff expert Michelle Thornton--resulting in several prime scoring opportunities.

UNH could not convert on any of its chances, however, partly due to impressive play by Ruddock.

Although the referee let both teams use physical play--no one was penalized for checking all game--UNH did not approach the extreme physical style used by other teams.

"We've played against a lot physically tougher and dirtier teams," Shewchuk said. "There are a lot of teams that just go out to hurt people." UNH's defense broke down toward the end of the period. Harvard finally got the break they were looking for, and the results were virtually identical.

Botterill again scored at 18:59, again from the left post, and again off of a pretty pass from Shewchuk. Despite being outshot in the period, Harvard took a 2-0 lead to the intermission.

The Crimson turned in an impressive defensive performance in the second period. Harvard held UNH to just four shots on goal, even while being shorthanded for four minutes midway through the period.

In fact, Harvard dominated play while shorthanded, spending much of both Wildcat power plays in the UNH zone.

Botterill completed her hat trick at 2:26 of the second, scoring from point blank range off of another Shewchuk assist.

UNH would answer five minutes later, when center Kira Misikowetz rifled a slap-shot from the faceoff circle to the right of Ruddock and into the back of the net. The goal seemed to energize the Wildcats, who pressed Harvard for the next few minutes, but they missed the net with most of their shots.

Harvard put the game away with a goal at 18:28 in the second when junior forward Vanessa Bazzocchi flipped in a goal from just in front of the net. Linemate Lauren McAuliffe got the primary assist, and Shewchuk, picked up her fourth assist of the game.

"That was the most special assist of the day," Shewchuk said. "Feeding the puck to [Botterill] is nothing new, but feeding it to my best friend is something special."

The goal came with the Crimson's third line on the ice, always a good sign considering the concerns over Harvard's lack of depth.

The Crimson only plays three lines, and the third line had combined for only eight points all season.

"We don't lose a step with the third line in there at all," Stone said. "They generate so much with their pressure, and they work so hard."

That fourth goal iced the game for Harvard, and the teams seemed to play out the final period knowing the outcome was already decided. Despite three UNH power plays, neither team could muster much in the third period, as the squads combined for only 11 shots.

The Crimson's next game is Tuesday at Boston College in the first round of the women's Beanpot. The game counts towards the ECAC standings.