All-Saints Weekend Will Test W. Hockey

The No. 2 Harvard women’s hockey team hopes that when the Saints go marching out, they take two losses from the Crimson along with them.

No. 4 St. Lawrence left New Hampshire this past weekend as the new King of the Hill in the ECAC, but Harvard is poised to regain control of the conference when the teams face off in a two-game set on Friday night and Saturday afternoon .

With the help of Dartmouth’s two home losses, the Crimson (20-2-1, 10-2-0 ECAC) will look to do what the Big Green could not and secure itself at the top of the conference standings by fending off the Saints (20-5-1, 11-1-0), who sit atop the conference standings by a single victory.

“I’ve had this weekend marked on my calendar for awhile as two of the biggest games this season,” co-captain Angela Ruggiero said. “[St. Lawrence] has been underrated all year because they have not had many big games.”

With two victories over the Saints, the Crimson would not only propel itself not only into first place in the conference, but most likely replace Minnesota as the top-ranked team in the country.

Harvard would also prove it can run with the big dogs, since it has not defeated any of the current top-five teams to date.

Amidst the final stretch of 2003—an odd time in collegiate winter sports when games are few and far between—St. Lawrence dropped a game to Connecticut and then a few weeks later to Brown. But since winter break the Saints have put together an eight-game win streak, capped by the impressive victories over Dartmouth.

“Those close games—even losses—actually help you down the stretch because you get practice for when it counts,” said St. Lawrence coach Paul Flanagan.

Now that it’s crunch time—with the Saints vying for home ice in the ECAC playoffs as well as a spot in the Frozen Four—every point is crucial.

St. Lawrence’s attack begins with Canadian national team member Gina Kingsbury, who ranks fifth in the country in scoring. Rebecca Russell, playing on the right wing, also stands in the top ten nationally in scoring and assists.

“A staple of Harvard hockey has always been that we don’t adjust our style of play for other teams,” Ruggiero said. “But everyone will be aware when those three are out there.”

Just as clutch play from its fresh faces on the ice has bolstered the Crimson this year, the Saints have their own freshman sensation, Chelsea Grill, who completes the talented first line with her freshman-leading 0.86 points per game.

According to its coach, St. Lawrence’s offense centers on its depth rather than the pure power of the first line.

“We want to stay away from being a one-line team,” Flanagan said. “If somebody shuts them down, we have enough weapons with our blue line and our third line; they’ve scored huge goals for us.”

Aside from the first line, however, the Saints’ offensive statistics just do not match up to those of the Crimson—which has an overwhelming six skaters in the top 25 point scorers in the country.

The real X-factor in this weekend’s contest could boil down to the play of both goalies. On the St. Lawrence side, two-time all-American Rachel Barrie has been the anchor of the team’s success, giving up only 1.25 goals per game when the team wins, as compared to over four in the losses. To her team, however, she influences play in more than just her shot-stopping abilities.

“One thing that definitely doesn’t show up on the stat sheet is the confidence she gives to her young defensemen,” Flanagan said.

In last weekend’s 3-0 blanking of Dartmouth, Barrie sparked the decisive moment of the game. Cherie Piper had a clear open chance to bring Dartmouth to within one at 2-1 when Barrie made a save and sent the puck up the boards, leading to St. Lawrence’s third goal of the game.

In the Crimson’s loss to Dartmouth this season, the impressive play of the Big Green’s Christine Capuano was one of the key factors in the Harvard loss.

“We’ve had some problems this year with good goalies, and Berrie is definitely one of those,” Ruggiero said. “We’ve been working lately on crashing the net and concentrating on getting the rebound.”

But Harvard’s history against Barrie is a little brighter than other conference opponents, scoring 4.45 goals per game with a record of 3-0-2 in their last five contests.

Either way the weekend series goes, one streak or another will fall—Harvard’s five-game unbeaten streak versus Barrie or the Saints’ eight-game winning streak.

Both games to decide tops in the ECAC—and should Harvard sweep, most likely the nation—will be played on the Crimson’s home ice, at 7 p.m. on Friday night and 4 p.m. Saturday.

—Staff writer Gabe M. Velez can be reached at gmvelez@fas.harvard.edu./