Saints Hand Crimson First Loss of Season

The No. 6 Harvard women’s hockey team ventured to North Country—that region of upstate New York home to both Clarkson and St. Lawrence—this weekend with the chance to move its ranking in that same direction.

But after losing soundly to the No. 5 Saints (8-2-0, 4-2-0 ECAC) on Saturday, 4-2, the Crimson (3-1-1, 3-1-1) will likely plunge in the polls instead.

Harvard extended its season-opening winning streak to three with a convincing 2-0 win over Clarkson (3-5-1, 1-4-1) on Friday night, but ran into trouble against old nemesis St. Lawrence at Appleton Arena in Canton, N.Y., the next day.

“They’re definitely the best team we’ve played so far,” freshman defender Cori Bassett said. “They have a really good core of players. Hopefully next time we’ll get them.”

The loss dropped the Crimson into fourth place in the conference with six points in four games, despite its 25-4 scoring advantage.

ST. LAWRENCE 4, HARVARD 2

Abbie Bullard scored for St. Lawrence at the 12:07 mark of the first period, ending a season-long shutout for sophomore netminder Brittany Martin and the Crimson and giving the Saints the upper hand it would never relinquish.

“It was pretty disappointing,” Bassett said. “But we knew we couldn’t go all season without giving up a goal.”

Harvard had several chances to reassert its control over the game, knotting the score at 1 and 2, but undermined by its inability to convert on the power play or stay out of the penalty box, ultimately fell short in a 4-2 defeat.

“It was a bummer to lose but it will definitely be a learning situation for what we need,” Bassett said.

The whistle-heavy affair—St. Lawrence was called for 10 penalties, the Crimson eight—turned in the second period, when Harvard twice erased one-goal deficits, but was met with a quick response on both occasions. Julie Chu made the game 1-1 with her fourth goal of the season on a 5-on-3 just 2:02 into the frame, with assists coming from sophomore Jenny Brine and Bassett. Carson Duggan put the Saints back ahead at 5:13. The Crimson’s third line answered with a game-tying strike at 9:28, courtesy of sophomore Kirsten Kester, once again set up by Bassett. Kester’s first goal of the season did not hold up for long, though, as St. Lawrence buried the game-winner at 11:49.

Harvard surrendered the cushioning fourth goal 37 seconds into the final period while toiling on a 5-on-3 penalty kill. It had a chance to make things interesting again with over a minute of its own 5-on-3 time late in the third but could not convert. The Crimson finished 1-for-10 on the power play; the Saints were 2-for-8. Twice, Harvard was nabbed for having too many skaters on the ice.

“That was definitely an issue,” Bassett said. “We need to work on staying out of the box. It’s hard to win the game when you’re killing the whole time.”

HARVARD 2, CLARKSON 0

The Crimson, led by a 25-save effort from Martin, posted its third straight shutout to begin the season at Cheel Arena in Potsdam, N.Y. Friday night, vanquishing Clarkson by a 2-0 count. Harvard took command of the contest late in the first period, on scores from sophomore Sarah Vaillancourt and Brine less than five minutes apart.

Martin extended her season-opening scoreless streak to 160 minutes, or eight full periods, and chalked up the fourth shutout of her career in only her ninth start. She made eight saves in each of the first two segments, and nine in the final third for the whitewash.

“She’s been playing great,” Bassett said. “She’s been really stepping it up and making some huge saves for us, especially when we’re on the penalty kill so much.”

Vaillancourt struck first for Harvard, notching her eighth goal of the year with six minutes remaining in the opening frame. Vaillancourt also assisted—with a sweet feed to Brine—on the team’s next score, tallied on the power play with 1:27 left in the period. That goal gave Harvard a comfortable 2-0 lead that stood up the rest of the way. Chu assisted on both goals to bump her season total to 11.

The lowlight for the Crimson was the 11 penalties it committed, but fortunately its penalty kill was up to the challenge, erasing all of the Golden Knights’ extra-skater opportunities without incident.

“I think our penalty kill was great,” Bassett said. “But there’s only so much you can do on the penalty kill.”

Harvard beat Clarkson netminder Kira Hurley, named Goalie of the Year in the ECAC in 2005-06, to sink the Golden Knights’ conference record to 1-3-1 one season after placing third in the league. Hurley made 17 stops in the loss.

The Crimson returns to action next weekend with a Friday-Saturday set against Colgate and Cornell at Bright Hockey Center. The puck drops at 7 p.m. on Friday and game time is scheduled for 4 p.m. the next day.

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