W. Hockey Rebounds, Sweeps ECAC Foes

The perfect balance of hard work, skill and experience can be a hard task. But it’s what every hockey team looks to build in order to be successful on the ice.

This past weekend, the No. 4 Harvard women’s hockey team showed that it can beat almost any team with each of these three qualities, defeating No. 6 St. Lawrence 5-1 on Friday night and Clarkson 4-0 on Saturday.

“We haven’t had the continuity until now because of all the things that happened at the beginning of the season, but we certainly have three very solid lines,” Harvard coach Katey Stone said. “If we keep the game simple, we are going to be a very good team.”

The smooth and experienced play of the Crimson (6-1-1, 6-1-0 ECAC) overwhelmed ECAC newbie Clarkson (4-4-3, 2-2-0), while hard work and tough play in getting to the puck put away the Saints (7-2-2, 0-1-0).

Harvard had its offense firing on all cylinders in both contests, connecting on 4 of its 13 power plays this weekend.

“It’s more about us than it is about them,” Stone said. “We were hustling, we moved well all around.”

HARVARD 4, CLARKSON 0

Although this meeting marked the first time these two teams had played, Clarkson did a good job hiding its relative inexperience in Division I hockey on Saturday night.

A day after St. Lawrence looked almost lifeless as Harvard rolled over the Saints, the Golden Knights fought for every loose puck and played the Crimson to a tight contest before giving up two key goals late in the second period.

Even in net, Clarkson played with intensity, as the Golden Knight’s Kira McDonald stopped 39 shots on the night.

“[It was their] work ethic, no question,” Stone said. “It’s great to play teams that make you struggle, because you have to stay with it.”

Tri-captain Nicole Corriero opened up Harvard’s lead late in the second when she put both a shorthanded and a power-play goal in a span of just over a minute and a half.

The first came at 14:56, when Corriero took the puck towards the net herself and used her brilliant stick work to get the goal. With the puck in front of the net, Corriero brought the puck back as if to shoot—causing McDonald to sprawl forward in expectation—and then took it to the right edge of the crease and flicked it over the goaltender’s left leg.

About a minute and a half later, Corriero deflected a shot by fellow tri-captain Julie Chu for her 13th goal of the season.

“It took us a long time to get to them because they worked so hard,” Stone said. “My hat’s off to them. They gutted it out.”

Freshmen Sarah Vaillancourt started off the scoring for Harvard in the first period on a display of her talented stick work. Facing Clarkson’s Amanda Dittmer on a 1-on-1 breakaway, Vaillancourt put the puck behind the defender from the right, and then skated around the left to collect it. From there, she put a hard wrister into the top right shelf of the goal to beat McDonald for her fourth goal of the season.

HARVARD 5, ST. LAWRENCE 1

For two periods, the fans who filled Bright Hockey Center on Friday night saw the match-up they expected—a close ECAC contest between last year’s two regular-season conference co-champions.

In the third period, Harvard’s speed and endurance proved too much as it ran away with the game on the back of two goals by Corriero.

“I thought that they were better prepared in all aspects of the game,” said St. Lawrence coach Paul Flanagan. “It didn’t matter where it was they beat us. They took the puck right away from us, and that’s a physical statement that they wanted it more.”

Sophomore forward Liza Solley started things off right for the Crimson when she blasted home a pass from senior defenseman Ashley Banfield on a power play in the first period. The score, her third on the season, already surpasses her production all of last season.

“We’ve been practicing that feed across all day. It came together today,” Solley said. “I’m excited about playing on the second power play.”

But Solley’s goal did not open the floodgates—Harvard did not score again until the 17th minute of the second period when Corriero scored the 100th goal of her career.

After St. Lawrence racked up three penalties in quick succession, Harvard had an important 5-3 advantage. But the Crimson had failed to convert on its first such opportunity earlier in the period. Corriero took advantage of the second chance by pounding the puck home from in front of the net off a pass from Vaillancourt.

Corriero scored the next two Crimson goals in the third period to put the game away. To complete her second hat trick in a row, Corriero used a little trick shot—with her back to the net, Corriero took a soft lob pass from Chu and flipped it up behind her and over St. Lawrence goalie Jess Moffat and into the net.

“I’ve got incredible line mates who just see me and get me the puck.” Corriero said. “I’m always just in the right place at the right time. It’s no joke that the goals are all similar—these are plays we just practice and practice.”

With nine goals in her last three games, the practice has been paying off offensively for Corriero.

—Staff writer Gabriel M. Velez can be reach at gmvelez@fas.harvard.edu.