Bumpy Ride for W. Hockey On and Off the Ice

Before the Harvard women’s hockey team even stepped on the ice against St. Lawrence on Friday in Canton, N.Y., it had to get there the day before.

A typical bus ride from Boston to St. Lawrence takes under seven hours, but this trip took over nine. Among the confounding difficulties, the bus diverted from the major highway, lost its way and hit a deer.

Sophomore Nicole Corriero said she was sleeping soundly when all of a sudden she heard the bus slam on its breaks. She then heard a thump, looked outside her window and saw a deer squirming in the snow as the bus went by.

According to junior Lauren McAuliffe, the bus stopped only briefly and the state police were called to handle the situation.

The circuitous route to Canton wasn’t all bad. The bus went through Lake Placid along the way, where freshman Julie Chu and captain Angela Ruggiero spent the better part of two years training with the U.S. national team.

“On the drive up here I got a little nostalgic going by Lake Placid and the Saranac Lake area,” Chu said to the Watertown Daily Times on Saturday.

But for the most part, the bus ride was frustrating. Corriero said she felt she still had her bus legs the next day.

“It was a really long, stressful bus ride there, and by the end we were all at our wit’s end,” Corriero said. “We just wanted to get off the bus.”

At the very least, the team was thankful it arrived in Canton safely.

“Everything ended up turning out okay.” Corriero said, “except for the deer, of course.”

Violence On the Ice

The Crimson can also be grateful the most violent spectacle it witnessed this weekend did not involve its players on the ice. Other top teams these past two weekends have not been as lucky.

The most high-profile injury of the season occurred on Feb. 8 with 10 seconds left in Minnesota’s 2-1 WCHA victory over Ohio State. The Gophers had just cleared the puck behind the Buckeye net on the penalty kill, essentially clinching the victory, when Gopher freshman Krissy Wendell fell victim to an unanticipated hit at center ice from Ohio State defenseman Heather Farrell. Wendell, a U.S. Olympian, had scored the eventual game-winner a minute earlier. There was no penalty called on the play.

A day later it was revealed that Wendell had broken her collarbone and would be out for at least the remainder of the regular season.

Wendell hasn’t spoken to the media since the incident.

“She’s not feeling good at all,” her mother said to the St. Paul Pioneer Press last week.

On Wednesday, the WCHA ruled that there would be no suspension for Farrell but mentioned that internal action had been taken. Minnesota coach Laura Halldorson declined to comment on the incident to the Minnesota Daily or the Star-Tribune.

While Farrell will not face any disciplinary action, Colgate’s Allison Paiano and Dartmouth’s Canadian Olympian Cherie Piper were not as lucky. Both received major penalties for fighting and game disqualifications, which carry with them one-game suspensions.

Dartmouth won the game 8-0.

Piper’s suspension comes at a particularly bad time. Dartmouth plays a two-game set at No. 9 Mercyhurst this weekend. The Big Green has experience playing without Piper—she had already missed games for the Four Nation’s Cup in November and a Canadian national team camp in January.

There was another incident of ugliness in the aftermath of a WCHA game between Wisconsin and St. Cloud St. on Friday. Fighting broke out in the corner just as the benches were emptying for players to shake hands. St. Cloud’s Erin McNamara received a game disqualification, but it was later rescinded.

Still The Best

In a departure from what has become the norm, there was little controversy in this weekend’s series between No. 2 Minnesota-Duluth and No. 3 Minnesota.

In their most recent meeting, in December, Duluth’s Maria Rooth—the 2001 Frozen Four MVP—separated her shoulder when she was hit by Kelly Stephens.

But this weekend went by without incident. Duluth pounded the Gophers 7-1 on Friday night, but Minnesota bounced back to defeat the Bulldogs 4-2 on Saturday. Because Minnesota-Duluth swept the first two meetings, it is still in control in the WCHA title race.

After Friday night’s games, when Harvard tied St. Lawrence and the Bulldogs won convincingly, the Crimson lost its top spot in the USCHO.com Pairwise Rankings, which are the best available indicator of the NCAA selection process. But Duluth’s defeat on Saturday combined with the Crimson’s victory put Harvard back on top.

In the USCHO.com poll released yesterday, the Crimson lost one of the 15 first-place votes to the Bulldogs but still convincingly maintained its No. 1 ranking. Harvard’s 19-game unbeaten streak is still far and away the longest in the nation.

—Staff writer David R. De Remer can be reached at remer@fas.harvard.edu.