HOCKEY PREVIEW 2006-07: Season Preview

Playing the toughest competition is something Harvard coach Katey Stone loves.

“I like it—I think we have a very competitive schedule this year and I am looking forward to it,” she says.

A quick examination of this year’s schedule reveals that most of the usual suspects are back on Harvard’s slate. But there are still a number of easy league games that may serve more as a chance to pad statistics and test young players than real competition.

The Crimson will play Union, Quinnipiac, and Division-I newbie RPI twice—a sextet of games that Harvard could realistically win by a combined 50 goals.

And it is this lack of a challenge that bothers the Crimson.

“I think our league is too big,” Stone says. “Honestly, it bugs me that it is so big. It doesn’t allow us to play more out of league games, which I really like to do. But it is what it is.”

Ultimately, it will not be the games against these three teams that define the season. Instead, there are a number of key stretches that could develop into key turning points.

And then, of course, is the ECAC Tournament and, if Harvard gets the right breaks and excels, the NCAA Tournament.

The first games to circle on the 2006-2007 schedule will take place on the Crimson’s home sheet at Bright Hockey Center.

On Dec. 1, the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs come to town for a two-game set. Last year, Harvard fell 6-1 and 6-1 to the Bulldogs in Minnesota.

Those two games are only the start of the hardest part of the schedule, which comes in December. The Crimson also faces UNH and Dartmouth in that month.

“Again, it is probably going to be the most competitive year in women’s hockey everywhere, so they are all going to be tough,” Stone says.

And yet, with a mix of tough league competition and some of the best opposition in the nation, Harvard should be well prepared to make its run toward the NCAA championship.

“We’re kind of underrated and I love it,” Vaillancourt says. “I think we can win a national championship.”