HEINSIGHT: Women’s Hockey, Captains Close Season

You could say it was written in the stars.

I awoke the morning of the women’s hockey NCAA championship to find the Sunday edition of the Providence Journal outside my hotel door.

Skimming the headlines, one caught my attention. Six planets in our solar system—Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn—had aligned in the heavens. Including Earth, all but Saturn would be visible.

It was a sign. The hockey gods had orchestrated a cosmic ballet as a prelude to something special on the ice.

After following the Crimson all season, it seemed the fitting storybook end to the season. Doubted by many for most of the way, Harvard took on the role of unheralded No. 1 of the east.

The final battle pitting No. 1 Minnesota and the No. 2 Crimson would put any remaining doubts to rest.

It’s an old line now, but last year’s team was tapped to win it all early on. According to Harvard coach Katey Stone, it was the best team she’d ever coached. The team certainly put forth the numbers on paper. But it fell short when it counted most, falling to Minnesota-Duluth 4-3 in double overtime in the finals.

This season was different, and you could feel it. True, the Crimson had lost five talented seniors. But Angela Ruggiero and Lauren McAuliffe were steering the helm and they had a personal stake in returning to the championship game. Last season, the Bulldogs’ game-winner was shot past a sliding Ruggiero and a lunging McAuliffe, the puck flew over the first and past the latter before finding the back of the net on an impossible angle.

They never forgot. And this was their chance to win what had slipped away last season. Destiny brought them and Harvard back to the championship game.

Less than an hour before game-time, the Harvard team jogged around the lower level of the Dunkin’ Donuts Center. The inner workings of my mind requested the Rocky theme from my brain’s jukebox.

Moments later, Minnesota began stretching. Soon, the team paired off and mock-sparred with one another, throwing but never landing any punches. Regardless, the imagery was clear. This was setting up to be a classic championship bout.

As the six heavenly bodies aligned in the heavens, six bodies from each team skated on the ice and lined up during the starting line-up announcements, then remained after the national anthems for the opening face-off.

The ballet on ice was about to begin.

Early on, everything went according to the Crimson’s plans.

McAuliffe found a rebound off a shot from junior Nicole Corriero and fired it while being pulled down by Minnesota’s Alli Sanchez. Her shot hit the right post and set off the red light, but ultimately missed. But the bounce went Harvard’s way: her shot drew a penalty on Sanchez, leading to a Kat Sweet power play goal over a minute later.

Before the start of the second period, a CSTV camera in the players’ entrance to the ice caught Sweet bouncing around, firing up her teammates in the walkway in a colorful display.

Though it wasn’t captured on camera, the Gophers felt a similar passion, and from start to finish in the third period Minnesota proved the worth of its No. 1 ranking.

What began as an epic bout between Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed in the first two periods soon turned into Apollo vs. Drago in the third, and the Crimson was not playing the role of the Russian.

It all started with the goal that quite possibly wasn’t. The rest is history. Three more Minnesota goals later, Harvard finished runner-up for the second straight season.

One consolation for some Crimson fans might be the fact that on two days after the championship, Minnesota’s Natalie Darwitz and Lindsey Wendell joined Ruggiero and sophomore Julie Chu to practice for the U.S. National team in its run for the World Championships. Aside from the duo’s explosive offense that will add to the talent of USA Hockey, they conducted themselves in complete class-act fashion in the post-game press conference, offering opposing fans a reason to embrace them.

It’d be a lie to say that Minnesota wanted it more than Harvard. But on this particular Sunday the Gophers came through when it counted most. It wasn’t exactly what went wrong for the Crimson in the third so much as what went so right for Minnesota.

It may very well have been written in the stars. The hockey gods just didn’t have Harvard finishing on top; it was the year of the Gopher.

It’s a shame, too. This season’s Harvard team was fun to watch, not only because they won so often, or because of the blue-collar work ethic the team proudly displayed on the ice. The individual characters on the team gave this year’s Crimson a certain personality, a charm, if you will, that was built around getting along. It was the perfect formula for success. It carried Harvard to the finals. And it can be credited in large part to McAuliffe and Ruggiero.

No one could have taken the loss harder than the captains, and it spelt finality for their Crimson hockey playing careers.

It won’t be the same without seeing McAuliffe’s jersey flutter as she flies down the ice, nor will things seem right without watching Ruggiero take control of the puck in the defensive zone and take over the game as she skates to the other end. Nor will it be the same without having their jokes and antics in post-game interviews.

But for a brief moment in time, fans had a chance to watch them in Crimson jerseys. For now, their names are fresh on our minds and will continue to hold firm places in Harvard hockey’s history books. One only hopes they continue to play a role in women’s hockey in one capacity or another.

Maybe one day they will be additions to Harvard media guides as prominent Harvard alumni, and, who knows, they may one day be a part of something bigger than we can now imagine. Until then, “Farewell! be thy destinies onward and bright!”

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