Fantastic Five Stun Big Green

In a big game, in search of big goal, there is no need to look further than senior forward Nicole Corriero for its most likely source.

Time and again this season, in crucial, make-or-break spots, Corriero has willed Harvard’s women’s hockey team ahead with her unflappable determination and scoring acumen.

No spot was more important than that on Saturday night at Thompson Arena—the home ice of the nation’s No. 2 Dartmouth. Locked in a dogfight with the Big Green atop the ECAC standings and clinging to a projected position in the NCAA Frozen Eight, the Crimson could scarcely afford defeat.

Her team needing her more than ever, the tri-captain Corriero stepped up and scored. Not once or twice. Not even a simple hat trick would suffice. Corriero poured in five, propelling Harvard to a stunning 6-3 win over Dartmouth. Of the quintet, with the possible exception of the final-minute empty-netter, all of her goals in this intense match-up were clutch.

When the Crimson fell behind early, Corriero brought them even six minutes later. Then she gave them a 2-1 lead with a power-play notch another four minutes into the game.

No goal was more pivotal, though, than her third of the night. Dartmouth answered a go-ahead Harvard score for the second straight time, knotting the contest at 3-3 with 1:10 left in the second period. The tide was turning, the Big Green rallying with the home crowd at its back. On the ensuing face-off, Corriero took the puck from senior Ashley Banfield on a punishing drive up the left side, carried two defenders with her across the goal mouth, and pushed the puck off Dartmouth goalie Kate Lane. The ricochet bounced off Corriero’s pads and over the line.

“I was just trying to get the puck to the net,” Corriero said. “You just throw it on the net sometimes and things drop in. Next thing I knew I could see it peek into the top corner. I’m not sure how though.”

The imagery was perfectly symbolic. Corriero used everything she had at her disposal—her stick, her skates, her shoulder—to get the puck into the net. Just as she continues to give her all for Harvard hockey.

“We’ve benefited from having Nikki Corriero in our program for four years,” head coach Katey Stone said. “She’s one of the strongest kids on the puck that I’ve seen. She just gets it done, she keeps working, and she played great. She’s got a nose for the net.”

When the day was done, the Crimson had secured a vital win and Corriero’s teammates were filled with awe and admiration for her ability to score in bunches in big games.

“The game was over and someone said ‘Nicole scored five’ and I was like ‘Wow’,” tri-captain Julie Chu said. “That’s how she does it. You don’t even realize because she’s that good.”

Coupled with two tallies Friday night against Vermont, Corriero’s prolific weekend moved her ahead of the pack for the national goal-scoring lead with 37 and earned her ECAC Player of the Week honors. Meanwhile, her five goals Saturday matched the previous high output for an entire team—No. 1

Minnesota—against the stingy Big Green defense this season. Of Corriero’s four hat tricks this season, all four have come against top-10 opponents.

Nowhere is Corriero’s tenacity and flair for opportune goals more apparent than on special teams. Corriero leads the nation with 14 extra-skater tallies and anchors the Crimson penalty kill. When Dartmouth received a 5-on-3 late in the first period, Corriero helped make sure the second-ranked power-play in the nation did not break through.

In crunch time in Hanover, Corriero rose to the occasion as always, and lifted her team to victory.

“Right now I can’t think of a win more satisfying than this one,” Corriero said afterward. “It was between Harvard and Dartmouth for me when I was being recruited, so Harvard-Dartmouth definitely has a special place whenever the game comes around.”

Harvard is certainly glad it got her.

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