W. HOCKEY NOTEBOOK: Corriero Eclipses 100 Goals

With her second straight hat trick, tri-captain Nicole Corriero became just the fourth player in Harvard history to score 100 career goals and moved past Angie Francisco ’01 on Harvard’s all-time career scoring list.

“Angie might not be too psyched about that,” Corriero joked after the St. Lawrence game in which she surpassed Francisco on Friday night.

Harvard coach Katey Stone, however, didn’t downplay Corriero’s on-ice success.

“Nicky’s worked hard and done a great job,” Stone said. “She deserves every bit of the praise. She’s earned every one of those goals—and thank God she’s gotten them for us.”

By the time the Crimson defeated Clarkson Saturday night, Corriero finished the week with nine goals and four assists. For the season, Corriero has 21 points (13 goals, 8 assists).

In addition to Corriero carving her name on Harvard scoring charts, goaltender Ali Boe set a new milestone of her own in her signature low-key fashion. Harvard’s 4-0 blanking of Clarkson Saturday night marked her ninth career shutout, tops for any Crimson netminder.

“Boe gives us what we expect. It’s not flashy, but she’s solid,” Stone said. These are tough games to play in, when you don’t have a lot of shots on you.”

THE MIDAS TOUCH

Two of the three prongs of Minnesota’s offensive attack edge Corriero in leading the nation’s scoring. Natalie Darwitz sits atop the list with 39 points (13 goals, 26 assists) for an average of 3.25 points per game, while fellow junior Krissy Wendell lies two points behind with 37 total (16 goals, 21 assists). Linemate Kelly Stephens has an impressive 27 points (16 goals, 11 assists), giving the Golden Gophers the right to boast the nation’s most potent offensive line, statistically speaking.

That right will be challenged this Saturday at 4 p.m. in the Crimson’s second game of the Harvard Shootout. Hosted at Bright Hockey Center, fans will get a chance to see arguably the two best lines in college hockey square off against one another when Darwitz, Wendell and Stephens meet Corriero, Chu and Vaillancourt.

While there is good reason for the hype surrounding the teams’ top two lines, the difference might very well lie elsewhere.

“We’ve got a lot of offense and we’ve got a lot of depth and speed,” Stone said. “I’m sure that they are fast and we obviously know that they have got some offense. Are they as deep as offensively as we are? No, I don’t think so.”

“We want to play these great teams and see what we are made of. Hopefully it’s going to be more than a one line game.”

Harvard also hasn’t forgotten about losing last season’s national championship to the Gophers and how to prevent a repeat performance when the two teams meet.

“Everyone wants to step up and play a full three periods,” said junior tri-captain Julie Chu. “Last year we played two against [Minnesota]. That’s part of why we play college hockey, we want to play the best teams.”

“The key this year is to be more aware, to go three hard periods in the ‘D’ zone and let the offense work itself out. The key is going to be tough defense—we just have to get up in their face and take away any time that they have.”

Harvard kicks off the four-team tournament—which also includes Northeastern—against Wisconsin on Friday night at 4 p.m.

—Staff writer John R. Hein can be reached at hein@fas.harvard.edu.