Dramatic Goal Saves Weekend

In yesterday’s clash with the Saints, Harvard pulled off a minor miracle.

The fifth-ranked Crimson (3-1-1, 2-1-1 ECAC) tied the game with six seconds left in regulation and held on for a 2-2 draw with No. 1 St. Lawrence (8-0-1, 1-0-1) in overtime.

In a furious 6-on-4 flurry as the clock wound down, Harvard moved the puck nearly the length of the ice, forced a shot on net, and jammed the rebound past Saints goalie Meghan Guckian.

With netminder Ali Boe already pulled for an extra skater, and a St. Lawrence defender sent to the penalty box for cross-checking with 32 seconds remaining, the Crimson was presented with one last chance to force overtime. The face-off, however, skidded back into the Harvard defensive zone and senior Jennifer Raimondi gathered the puck with only 20 ticks left. Raimondi carried across the blue line before leaving for junior Jennifer Sifers, who drove to the goal and pushed a shot at Guckian. The rebound fell to the left side, where juniors Katie Johnston and Liza Solley took several swipes each at the loose puck before Solley finally shoved it home.

“We were all just scrambling in terms of trying to get a stick on it and get it to net,” Solley said. “Right place at the right time, I happened to be there. But that’s what it takes: six players hustling.”

In a strange twist, the six ticks the Crimson had to spare might never have been. With just under a minute and a half to go and a faceoff pending, Saints coach Paul Flanagan signaled to the referees for a conference. The game clock had stalled and was reset several seconds forward, though more time may have elapsed during the pause.

“Wouldn’t you know it was a six-second difference and that’s the amount of time they needed,” Flanagan said. “We think it was 12 or 14 seconds that should have been taken off the clock.”

Harvard coach Katey Stone, for her part, thinks her team made its own luck in the fast-paced clash.

“We weren’t sitting back going for a tie, we were going after it,” Stone said. “I felt like we outworked them today, so I’m very happy with effort.”

The Crimson’s hustle was especially evident on the penalty kill, where Harvard managed to keep the fearsome St. Lawrence power play 0-for-7 on the afternoon.

“We did a great job adjusting on our kill,” Stone said. “We just kept coming after

them the whole time and didn’t give them a lot of space.”

Boe, who finished with 35 saves, played her very best when the Saints had the man advantage, preserving a clean sheet through the first 29:55 and turning away seven shots on the first power play she faced and 10 in row before the Crimson mustered a single shot of its own.

“Clearly Ali Boe’s the hot hand,” Stone said. “She’s been getting work every game because we’re not there in front of her yet. The difference today was we were there offensively. On the penalty kill, she saves us. She makes the saves she needs to make to keep us in the game.”

Flanagan, too, was forced to tip his cap to the opposing keeper.

“After the game I went up to her. I gave her a half-hearted hug and said ‘We’re going to get you one of these days,’” he joked.

Harvard, despite being outshot 16-4 in the opening frame, seized an early 1-0 lead on a well-executed 2-on-2 halfway through the first period. Johnston rushed at two defenders before dishing to freshman Jenny Brine, who capitalized on the one-timer for her first collegiate goal.

But St. Lawrence methodically recaptured the edge, with freshman Alison Domenico lighting the lamp in both the second and third periods. She followed her own miss on the equalizer and beat Boe weak-side on the go-ahead score.

The tie, on the heels of a disappointing 4-3 loss to upstart Clarkson the day before, redeemed what could have been a disastrous second conference weekend. In snapping top-ranked St. Lawrence’s winning streak, and extending its unbeaten streak against the school to 13, Harvard maintained its foothold on the national scene.

“Coming off of [the loss to Clarkson], we were driving for 60 minutes,” Solley said.

Solley and the Crimson needed every last one of those minutes yesterday.

—Staff writer Jonathan Lehman can be reached at jlehman@fas.harvard.edu.