W. Hockey Opens Home Season With Niagara

At full force for the first time this season, Harvard’s women’s hockey team hopes to notch a pair of wins over Niagara in their home openers this weekend and extend its perfect record to 5-0.

Junior forward Nicole Corriero will look to maintain her current offensive tear, especially against Niagara Coach Margot Page.

Page coached the Canadian women’s under-22 national team that snubbed Corriero of a spot this summer.

The Crimson winger currently leads the nation, averaging six points a game.

“Nicole’s been playing great and I hope she keeps playing great,” said Harvard Coach Katey Stone. “She shouldn’t look at this as revenge.”

Along with Corriero’s scoring, No. 3 Harvard hopes its overall play will get a further boost with its line-up at full strength. The two-game set follows the team’s first full week of practices with the entire squad.

Co-captain Angela Ruggiero and sophomore Julie Chu recently returned from playing with the U.S. National Team in Switzerland, while senior Mina Pell and freshman Katie Johnston reunite with the squad after finishing their fall obligations to the field hockey and soccer teams, respectively.

Even with the returning players, Harvard isn’t taking any chances.

“We always go into every game thinking they’re the best team in the country,” said junior forward Kat Sweet.

While the team is wary of being overconfident, history is clearly in Harvard’s favor. The Crimson have fallen to the Eagles only once in the past six years, winning the other eight games. Harvard plans to utilize their depth against the physical Purple Eagles.

“You never want to underestimate your opponent,” Stone said. “We’ll attack Saturday and then decide what to do Sunday.”

Meanwhile, the Eagles will play without their starting goaltender, freshman Allison Rutledge, for the Saturday contest. Rutledge received a game disqualification for fighting in Niagara’s 2-1 victory over Findlay. The skirmish erupted when Findlay players crashed into Rutledge after she covered up the puck late in the third period.

While last year’s 6-0 victory looks like an easy win on paper, the Crimson claims the game was actually much closer than the score suggests.

“We always have a tough time against Niagara,” Sweet said.

Harvard hopes the Eagle’s ‘clutch and grab’ style of play will be no match for its fine-tuned game.

“We’re working on our power play and our penalty kill because of the physical play,” said Ruggiero.

In their last meeting, Harvard maximized on these skills, notching two goals off of four man advantages and killing all of the Purple Eagle’s six power plays.

This year, the Crimson have proven their prowess on special teams play, posting seven goals on the power play and three on short-handed attack in victories against No. 5 Providence and Union.

Given the track record, Harvard has reason to believe its perfect record will remain intact.

“The team is expecting to come out of this weekend with two wins,” said sophomore goalie Ali Boe.