W. Hockey Sweeps Weekend Pair

After losing five out of its last six games to close out 2004, the Harvard women’s hockey team swept its weekend opponents, Cornell and Colgate, to bounce back in the new year. The Crimson (9-6-1, 8-1-0 ECAC) defeated the Big Red (3-7-2, 3-6-0) with a solid 5-3 victory before blanking the Raiders (7-9-1, 2-5-1) 3–0 behind a shutout by junior goalie Ali Boe—the 10th of her career and the most for a Harvard women’s hockey goaltender.

Any doubt that the Crimson would be focused and back to its winning form was dispelled by the team’s play. Tri-captain Nicole Corriero once again led the way for the Crimson, scoring four goals and three assists over the weekend, while freshman Sarah Vaillancourt added three goals and two assists of her own in the two games.

“Every day we play we need to prove ourselves,” said junior tri-captain Julie Chu. “From the beginning we had a tough season, but to say we had a tough season is only making excuses. We just came up a little bit short, and we need to come out flying.”

For her part, Chu assisted on four of the eight Harvard goals over both games.

Harvard returns to Bright Hockey Center Tuesday night to host Brown at 7 p.m. in what will be the Crimson’s final game before its annual exam break.

HARVARD 5, CORNELL 3

While Vaillancourt and junior forward Jennifer Raimondi each helped the Crimson to a win over the Big Red, it was Corriero who really cinched the win for Harvard, putting away the game-winning goal courtesy of Vaillancourt at 9:39 in the third period.

The goal was the first of two for Corriero in the period, which gave the Crimson a necessary cushion against a late Cornell surge that brought the Big Red back within one at 11:33 in the final frame.

Keeping Cornell at bay wasn’t easy for the Crimson.

“They get in there and use their bodies and are physical,” Chu said. “They really made us work for all the goals.”

But Corriero secured the win for Harvard when she scored her team-leading 24th goal of the season, bouncing the puck off Cornell goalie Flora Vineberg’s skate at 14:04 in the period.

Vaillancourt managed to score both of the Crimson’s first two goals, giving the team the momentum and a 2-0 lead early in the second period.

Harvard’s advantage was soon snatched away when Cornell managed to outwit Boe and score two goals, the first at 10:37 and the second only five minutes later.

Both goals came during power plays for the Big Red.

“We got into some penalty trouble,” Chu said. “We need to clear up those little mental lapses here. We need to come up big when we are a man down.”

“[Those goals] didn’t faze us,” tri-captain Kat Sweet said. “We were totally dominating in the game and we knew we were going to win. We just had to keep playing hard.”

HARVARD 3, COLGATE 0

After showing off its offensive guns the night before, Harvard showcased its defense and goaltending against Colgate.

Boe shined on a night of limited action, stopping all 10 pucks that came her way for her third shutout of the season.

Once again, though, the Crimson’s offense proved to be a smothering defense as well.

“We played so much better than [Friday night],” Sweet said. “[We were] moving the puck faster, attacking the goal faster, and shooting from everywhere.”

Corriero started the scoring just 14 seconds into the first period, poking home her own rebound with an assist from Chu.

“Everyone was really on key,” Chu said.

That might have been an understatement for the humble Chu, who notched an assist on each of the three Harvard goals against the Raiders.

Corriero wasn’t done for the weekend, either. With another Chu assist from the Crimson’s own defensive zone, she managed to get behind the Raiders defensive line and put away her second goal of the night at 9:42 in the first period.

The offensive domination was apparent in the shots total. Harvard outshot Colgate 18-2 in the first period and finished with 35 shots to the Raiders’ 10.

“The emphasis today was holding the red line,” Chu said. “[The Raiders] didn’t have an opportunity to skate the puck and would have to chip it out. Everyone was ready to go hard and not give [Colgate] a lot of space to move with the puck.”

Vaillancourt brought home the third and final goal of the game when she bounced a shot off the inside of the left post to hit the back of the net at 5:24 in the third period.

The Crimson attributed its weekend performance to a newly intensified practice schedule.

Since coming back from the holiday break, head coach Katey Stone has brought the team’s regular practices to a whole new level in hopes of jump starting the team.

“That way, in the grits we are not going down hill,” Chu said. “Once you get really tired, the first thing to go is your mind, and to practice at those levels of exhaustion will be key, so we don’t make essential mistakes.”

And hopefully the team will continue to stop making those mistakes, as they are ranked a precarious eighth in the Pairwise rankings—a system that has continuously predicted NCAA tournament rankings.

But the team doesn’t seem too worried about their lower-than-expected seedings.

“Right now that’s the way it goes,” Chu said. “We’ve lost some big games and there are still a lot of games to be played, and a lot can happen.”

—Staff writer Abigail M. Baird can be reached at ambaird@fas.harvard.edu.