THE GIFT OF GAB': Fans Rally To Support W. Hockey in Title Game

Any Harvard sports fan knows the trials and tribulations of trying to find the scores live of all the important games over the course of the year.

Searching for live updates online is always a labyrinth of dead ends, and the radio broadcasts online are never a sure thing.

That’s why when it comes down to the big games, there is nothing like the chance to experience it live and maybe raise a little hell in the process.

Last weekend, Harvard women’s hockey fans of all stripes had a rare chance not only to easily find its team’s scores, but also to go root on their friends, classmates or relatives live in person in the season’s championship matchup.

Last year, the Crimson found itself in enemy territory for the final showdown against Duluth on their home ice—the Duluth Entertainment & Convention Center.

This year, it was the Crimson’s turn to turn a neutral stadium into a home-ice atmosphere.

The Dunkin’ Donuts Center—where the Frozen Four took place—holds 12,000 people and is in Providence, a mere hour’s drive away from the heart of Cambridge.

For the semifinal affair against St. Lawrence, the Harvard fans seemed scattered and only slightly louder then the force that the northern New York opponent could muster from its 2,000-student base.

At that point, it seemed as if expectations for this year’s attendance following up on last year’s rowdy sellout who witnessed the pinnacle of women’s hockey.

And for a sport that is still growing and has seen the crowd sizes rise each year with the level of play, the look of the 2,500 fans at the semifinal contest in an arena almost double the size of Duluth’s last year was not promising.

And then co-captain Angela Ruggiero made a guarantee and changed the tide.

After obviously talking with relatives and classmates who planned to be out in full force for Sunday’s championship game, Ruggiero said during Saturday’s press conference that the Harvard fans would not only be out in larger numbers, but were going to consolidate their group to generate some noise in the cavernous Dunkin’ Donuts Center.

By opening faceoff, some 3,500 fans had shown up—down from the over 5,000 who came out for last year’s Harvard-Duluth showdown—most of whom were either carrying Minnesota flags and yellow towels or signs in support of their favorite Crimson skater.

The Harvard side was boosted by members of the women’s crew team who once again painted their stomachs and braved the cold to support their fellow Radcliffe athletes.

On hand were also a number of alums from past women’s hockey teams, including Karen Ingram ’03 and Tracy Catlin ’03—both of whom were on the ice for last year’s tight showdown in the hostile Duluth environment.

One of the more creative inventions of the alums present included one obviously put together for junior winger Nicole Corriero, playing off of her Italian heritage.

Their sign read, “The Corriero Family is Coming After You,” and included a hole in the cardboard underneath where an arm could be stuck through to point at someone.

Co-captain Lauren McAuliffe received a warm send-off from her fans with a sign that read “McAuliffe 23 for President.”

Although the sign had made appearances earlier in the season, this one last time was a tribute to the four hard years that the McAuliffe had given the Crimson—much like the send-off devoted fans give their favorite professional players.

But while all of the fanfare and signage reflected the more relaxed, have-fun attitude that imbues collgiate women’s hockey’s ultimate event, even the fans bore down and got serious once the game began.

For the first two periods, every odd-man rush, every body-to-body hit, every amazing display of stick handling was accompanied by gasps or noise from the crowd as deserved.

And when Corriero looked like she had changed the momentum by putting Harvard up 2-1, the crowd exploded in a burst of hugs and applause.

As Minnesota began to put the game away in the third period, their fans quickly took control of the noisemaking.

Even the Harvard Band seemed to feel the pain of the forthcoming loss, being drowned out throughout the period by the arena’s sound system or the ecstatic Gophers band.

With the intensity of the actual game and the tension created in the air by the noise and excitement of the fans, the atmosphere for the Frozen Four championship game was one that is unequaled at any point during the regular season.

Since many of the Crimson’s games this past season featured opponents not on the level of the Golden Gophers, a number of times Harvard played either at home or on the road in front of a low number of die-hard parents or alums.

But when the games matter and are tight—like with the matchup of Harvard and Dartmouth at the Bright earlier in the season which drew a near capacity 2,000 fans—the excitement of experiencing a women’s hockey game, even for a sportswriter up in the pressbox, is unparalleled at Harvard.

And it always beats clicking refresh over and over again to find the latest scores.

Trust me, I know.

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