Again and Again

After the ECAC final on Sunday, tri-captains Julie Chu and Nicole Corriero had to practically push junior goalie Ali Boe to talk about her amazing performance.

Then they followed up Boe’s brief and humble comments—she is known for using few words and getting right to the point when addressing the media—with a mountain of praise trying to do justice to her career-best game in net for the Crimson.

“That’s one of the great things about Boe—she has the ability to control the rebounds,” Chu said. “She sometimes can’t see the puck until the last moment, but she can control it and doesn’t give them a second chance. It’s either in the corner or she’s covering it up.”

At the end of last season, Boe set a personal record for saves in trying to stop the Minnesota onslaught in the NCAA Championship game. In the end, her 34 stops went for naught as the Golden Gophers were able to put in six and go on to win.

Similarly, a few weeks ago, Boe blocked 32 against St. Lawrence, but could not quite get the win as the game ended in a 4-4 tie.

This Sunday, in the biggest game of the season to date, Boe not only notched a career-high 36 saves—12 of which were on the power play—but also shut down the potent Dartmouth offense that had been averaging 4.62 goals per game, good for second best in the country.

A day earlier, St. Lawrence’s Jess Moffat had trouble seeing the puck and allowed four goals to the Big Green, which used its size to effectively screen her. While Dartmouth employed the same strategy against Boe, she managed to make some incredible saves to turn away shot after shot.

The most important of these saves came during the span at the end of the second period that yielded 4:35 of power play for the Big Green, including 3:08 of two-man advantage.

“I think it was good for our momentum to keep them off the board,” Boe said. “They are really good on their power play, so anytime you can stop them it really gives us a lot of momentum.”

In the midst of this constant pressure, Boe made some of the biggest saves of the game. At one point, Dartmouth’s Cherie Piper—who plays for the Canadian National team and is one of the Big Green’s most dangerous scorers—got the puck at the top of the offensive zone while the three Harvard defenders and one Dartmouth skater were screening Boe’s vision. With a rapid flick of the stick, Piper sent a blazing slapshot at the lower corner of the net. Boe saw it at the last minute and quickly flipped out her left leg to cover the entire side of the goal and kick the shot aside.

“Everyone is working a lot harder together,” Boe said. “You can play off their momentum during the game. It’s really kind of easy back there for me—just stop the first shot and I know they are going to take care of the rest.”

The previous day against Yale, Boe registered 17 saves against a much weaker Bulldogs offense, but still played strong to keep Harvard alive until it could put in the game winner.

Throughout most of regulation, any Yale chance on net had been easily blocked by Boe. Only in the final few seconds, as the Bulldogs pulled their goalie and Harvard sophomore defender Lindsay Weaver sat in the penalty box, did Yale finally manage to get one by her.

Nevertheless, over the course of the two days, Boe showed she is one of the hottest goalies in the country. Right now, she is ranked seventh nationwide with a 1.79 goals against average.

Lately, Boe has been playing better than even that, and the Crimson will need her to maintain such a high level of play as it looks to bring home a NCAA championship.

—GABRIEL M. VELEZ