Captain Ruggiero Wins Another One For W. Hockey

Ten minutes after the conclusion of Friday night’s showdown between the Harvard women’s hockey team and St. Lawrence, Crimson coach Katey Stone stood gripping a cup of blue Powerade and grinning like a proud parent.

“That’s why she’s the best,” Stone said.

She summed up what was on everyone’s mind as every pair of eyes in Bright Hockey Center watched Crimson skaters pile on top of Angela Ruggiero after she scored the game-winning goal in overtime, giving No. 2 Harvard a dramatic 3-2 victory over No. 4 St. Lawrence.

In what turned out to be an epic battle between the Crimson and the Saints, Ruggiero rose to the occasion and became the game’s hero when she put a wrister past St. Lawrence goalie Rachel Barrie at 2:10 in overtime.

What’s more, Ruggiero wasn’t playing completely healthy.

“She didn’t feel great today—she’s a little sick, banged up, under the weather,” Stone said.

“Great players find a way to get it done.”

That’s exactly what she did Friday night. Her presence was felt on the ice and showed on paper. Along with sophomores Julie Chu and Jennifer Raimondi, Ruggiero was on the ice for all three Harvard goals scored and had a hand in two.

“That’s what great players can do—I the think the other kids on that team elevate their play. When you’re out there with a Ruggiero or Chu…it makes you play better,” said Saints coach Paul Flanagan.

“[Raimondi’s] been stepping up these past couple of weeks and really putting the puck away for us. That’s the key—having her be a threat also,” said Chu.

The winning sequence started on a face-off on the left side of St. Lawrence’s own zone. Chu squared off against he Saints’ Gina Kingsbury.

“The play was for [Chu] to win it back, so I was sort of cheating in a little bit,” Ruggiero said.

But after the puck was dropped, no one immediately gained possession.

“[The puck] just kind of sat there a little bit. Then Katie Johnston knocked it back towards the goal,” Chu said. “Whoever was supposed to play [Ruggiero] had kind of gone out [of the play] and she crept in.”

Without any defenders in her path, Ruggiero made her move towards the puck.

“[Johnston] threw it towards the net…It was a nice slow pass play,” Ruggiero said. “I got a piece of it.”

As soon as Ruggiero picked up the puck, almost all in attendance—both team’s benches, fans seated around the rink, and the press box—rose to their feet, anticipating something special was in the making.

As she skated towards the goal, a gaping hole appeared between Ruggiero and Barrie.

“I was totally open in front,” Ruggiero recalled.

That left Barrie, who had made scintillating save after save—even performing splits while snagging rockets from Ruggiero’s shots from the point—all alone against arguably the best player in women’s college hockey.

“She stopped everything that was coming that she didn’t see,” Ruggiero said. “She got her foot on it at the last second or a glove on it and made the game exciting for the crowds.”

Barrie saw this one coming.

Instead of launching a patented rocket, Ruggiero continued skating towards the crease, keeping the puck in front of her. She deked left once, then switched over to her right, and fired a wrister that hit the inside of the right post before it ringed around the inside posts of the net.

Because of the speed of the action and the sea of defenders who collapsed on Ruggiero too late to stop the shot, only the fans sitting behind the goal saw the red light flare as the puck found its way into the back of the net.

“I heard the posts and then I saw it in the back and I was like, ‘did that really go in?’” Ruggiero said. “It was close.”

The goal marked Ruggiero’s second point of the game and her 19th goal of the season. She leads the nation in points scored amongst defensemen with 41.

The ensuing celebration marked what might have been the first time this season Harvard’s band had to play over the Crimson women’s hockey crowd. Even if only 621 strong, a far cry from the record 1921 set at the Jan. 11 Dartmouth game, many student athletes came out in support of the team. From the rowdy and raucous football team members cheering on behind the goal, to the members of Radcliffe crew standing against the glass with “GO HARVARD!!” painted on their stomachs, Bright Hockey Center seemed loudest Friday night. At game’s end, both teams received a standing ovation from an appreciative crowd.

After seeing the show Ruggiero put on, Crimson players, coaches and fans probably left with the same thought on their minds as Stone.

“Glad she plays for me.”

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