ECAC Playoffs Pit Crimson vs. Clarkson

Looking for the recipe for an upset?

Combine one part playoff hockey, one part a young team with nothing to lose, and one part an opponent that may have forgotten what it feels like to lose.

Add ice. Stir.

Those items will be in abundance this weekend, when No. 5 Harvard hosts upset-minded Clarkson in the best-of-three opening-round series of the ECAC tournament.

But the top-seeded Crimson, unbeaten since December, is working on a cocktail of its own­­—one that includes a second straight ECAC tournament title and a run at the NCAA championship.

To get there, Harvard will first have to down the Golden Knights, who qualified for their first-ever ECAC tournament as a No. 8 seed after a successful inaugural conference campaign. For a team in only its second year of Division I play, Clarkson’s 13-15-6 record, including two wins in the last three games to earn a post-season bid, surprised many observers.

“Clarkson is a good team,” head coach Katey Stone said. “They’re hard working, They have a good goaltender, and it’s playoff hockey. It’s really different hockey­­­—there’s a lot more juice in the air.”

But if Clarkson hopes to stand any chance against the Crimson, it will have to score, a task it was unable to accomplish in the two regular season meetings between the teams.

“It was a complete defensive effort,” said junior goalie Ali Boe, who pitched shutouts in each of those games. “We limited second chances and kept the puck out of the zone.”

In the teams’ first game, at the Bright Hockey Center, tri-captain Nicole Corriero scored two goals—once on the power play and once short-handed­—and notched two assists to lead Harvard to a 4-0 win.

Golden Knights sophomore goaltender Kira McDonald kept it close with 39 saves, but was ultimately done in by the effectiveness of the Crimson power play, which converted two of six chances.

After that win, however, Harvard dropped five of six games heading into winter vacation, a lengthy slide that sent the team’s record hurtling toward .500 and threatened the squad’s playoff aspirations.

It hasn’t lost since—a span of 15 games over which the Crimson has amassed a 13-0-2 mark and added the Ivy League and ECAC titles to its mantle.

“Part of the turnaround is a lot more people are playing,” Boe said. “A lot more people are stepping up. The team chemistry is back.”

During the streak, Harvard met Clarkson a second time and the result was nearly the same. The Crimson came away with a 5-0 victory, paced by two goals from Julie Chu, but had to find different ways to the net.

The Golden Knights limited Harvard to two power plays, and though it cashed in on one, the bulk of the scoring came at even strength.

On the other side of the ice, discipline has been a hallmark of the Clarkson defense all season. It ranks way down the list at 31st in the nation in penalty minutes allowed, with 8.1 per game. That kind of patience combined with the standout play of McDonald has helped the Golden Knights rise to eighth in country in scoring defense with just 2.12 goals allowed per game, the fewest for any team not in the top ten in the polls.

“They like to pack it in front of [McDonald],” Boe said. “The key is to move their goalie laterally and get bodies in front of her so she can’t see the puck and not get down if we don’t score early.”

A slow start in the second game was part of a recent trend that has not fazed the resilient Crimson. Early-season struggles have put the 2004-05 campaign in perspective.

Losses early in the season have made Harvard unafraid to face defeat, more likely aggressively to pursue wins and less likely to be upended by spoilers like Clarkson.

“I think that our struggles in the beginning of the season were so great,” Corriero said. “We’re so much more weathered. We’re not afraid to lose. Now we’ve got this momentum and we’re starting to peak at the time we need to peak.”

Things continue to look up for the Crimson, which was bolstered this week by the announcement of the Ivy League honors on Wednesday. Corriero was unanimously named Player of the Year, Sarah Vaillancourt earned Rookie of the Year, and four other skaters were listed among the top 18 players in the division.

“It’s really great that they were recognized for what they accomplished, said Boe, who was an honorable mention pick at goalie. “They all deserved it.”

The set at Bright kicks off on Friday at 7 p.m., followed by a game Saturday at 4 p.m., and Sunday at the same time, if necessary. If Harvard should advance, they will ship out to Schenectady, N.Y. for the ECAC semi-finals and finals next weekend.

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