Clarkson Upsets No. 5 Crimson at Home

For 10 minutes on Saturday, Harvard played like the fifth-ranked team in the nation. The only problem: hockey games are 60 minutes long.

Outplayed virtually the entire contest, the Crimson (3-1-0, 2-1-0 ECAC) suffered its first defeat of the season in a 4-3 upset loss to Clarkson (8-2-1, 3-0-0).

Up until the final 10 minutes, Harvard stuggled to make up a multi-goal deficit after the Golden Knights took charge from the start. Clarkson tallied three first-period goals—all on familiar misplays.

The Crimson’s young defense continued to struggle with clearing the puck out of its zone, a trend that began last weekend against Quinnipiac, when the defense allowed three goals to the Bobcats on defensive mistakes.

On Saturday, it was more of the same—for 50 minutes at least.

Just 5:30 into the first period, a sloppy pass across the crease led to Clarkson’s first goal. Later in the frame, sophomore defender Jessica Mackenzie, who appeared rusty in her return from injury, turned the puck over in the neutral zone, resulting in a Golden Knights’ breakaway goal. Clarkson’s third score of the opening period followed freshman defender Lauren Herrington’s failed clearing attempt, giving Golden Knights forward Melissa Marshall a wide-open shot on Harvard senior netminder Ali Boe.

“We’re young. It’s going to take some time for [our defense] to get its bearings,” Harvard coach Katey Stone said. “We just have to come out of the gate faster.”

Freshman forward Sarah Wilson provided the bright spot in an otherwise bleak first period, notching the sixth goal of her rookie season at the 6:51 mark. But this did not spark a comeback, as the Crimson continued its downhill slide in a second frame riddled with penalties and mistakes. Harvard was outshot 13-4 in the second period, with Clarkson maintaining the bulk of possession. The only thing that kept Harvard in the game was Boe’s 25-save effort in goal.

“[Boe]’s making all the big saves for us, doing exactly what she needs to do by keeping us in the game,” Stone said.

Boe’s stellar play was highlighted during a 5-on-3 penalty kill in the middle of the period. Down two skaters and two goals, her lunging stops kept the score at 3-1. With 18 seconds left on the second power play, however, the exhausted penalty killers let the Golden Knights get off a wrister, which whistled over Boe’s left shoulder to give Clarkson the eventual game-winning goal.

“It was a fatigue thing. They’d been out there killing that 5-on-3 for a while.” Stone said. “The defense [overall] has just got to tie up a little more and do better clearing pucks out from in front of the net.”

The Crimson failed to mount any offensive pressure of its own during its four-penalty second period, and this trend continued into the beginning of the third. But with 10 minutes to play, Harvard suddenly came to life.

The No. 5 squad in the country fore-checked with force, launching an all-out attack on the Golden Knights net. With 8:34 left in the final period, the aggressive effort paid off, as Wilson tallied her second goal of the game, deflecting junior defender Lindsay Weaver’s shot from the point for a power-play goal that brought the Crimson to within 4-2. With its renewed intensity, Harvard earned numerous other opportunities to further close the gap, including a shot by Wilson that went right in front of the net, missing a goal—and a hat trick—by inches.

But the Crimson’s comeback bid was not done. After pulling Boe with just over a minute to play, senior Jennifer Raimondi lifted a shot over unprepared Clarkson keeper Kira Hurley, who was still flat on the ice following a save made seconds earlier on Weaver. Raimondi’s third goal of the season capped her three-point performance, while also bringing Harvard to within a single score with 40 seconds to play.

But it was too little too late for the Crimson, who suffered its first-ever loss against Clarkson, after beating the Golden Knights four times a year ago.

“It’s a pretty bitter taste, but you learn from it and you come out tomorrow harder,” Wilson said after her first collegiate defeat. “[But] we’re pretty upset with this loss.”

The Crimson hoped to improve upon Saturday’s effort heading into a showdown with No. 1 St. Lawrence the next day by learning from their mistakes.

“We don’t ever want to hesitate,” Stone said. “We got a young team, so we got to be aggressive.”

And next time, she’ll want them to do it for all 60 minutes.