Raimondi, Impressive Crimson Stop Skid

What the Harvard women’s hockey team needed was some momentum, and Colgate became the perfect victim Saturday evening.

With the prospect of an all-important season-ending road trip to St. Lawrence and Clarkson on the horizon, the Crimson broke a two-game losing streak and routed the Raiders, 3-0, at Bright Hockey Center. With the win, Harvard (13-10-4, 9-5-4 ECAC) maintained a tight hold on fifth place in the ECAC while extending its dominating advantage in the all-time series against Colgate (10-13-7, 7-8-3) to 10-0-1.

The swing in the Crimson’s fortune—Harvard had lost its previous two games and was 2-5-2 in its last seven—came when the women of the class of 2006 graced the ice at Bright for potentially the last time.

“I thought we moved the puck well and played faster than we had been,” Harvard coach Katey Stone said. “But more importantly, we played with intensity and a sense of urgency today.”

Captain Carrie Schroyer opened the game on a positive note for the Crimson when she netted the eventual game-winner at just over two minutes into the contest.

Classmate Jennifer Raimondi, who has led the Harvard offensive charge all season, also netted a goal—her tenth of the season. Midway through the second frame, the Crimson showed its smarts by keeping possession of the puck when a penalty was called on Colgate.

After senior goaltender Ali Boe left the ice, sophomore Lindsey Weaver put a slapshot on net, and the puck eventually ended up on the stick of Raimondi on the right side. After a quick fake, Raimondi lifted the puck up and over the glove of Raider goalie Brook Wheeler for the second Harvard goal of the night.

“We were moving our feet all over the ice,” Raimondi said. “We were playing hustle, Harvard hockey. When you work hard, you get some luck.”

“We had great chances today,” Stone added. “We had a lot of great chances. We took a lot of shots on net that were good, quality shots.”

From that point on, the game was never in doubt as the Raiders struggled on the powerplay and failed to maintain their offensive momentum.

After two periods of relentless pressure on Wheeler, the Crimson only managed 10 shots in the final frame to finish with 52. The total was the most generated by Harvard since the Crimson swept ECAC bottom-feeder Union back at the beginning of December.

Much of the Harvard offense was generated during the team’s eight power play attempts, during which it managed 20 shots but only one goal. The lone special-teams score came with just over a minute and a half to play when the only non-senior to score, Jenny Brine, one-timed a perfect pass from Raimondi for the finishing touch on the victory.

On the other end of the ice, Boe stuffed 25 offerings from the Raiders and earned her Harvard-record 15th shutout of her career.

Two of the most important plays for the Crimson on the night were textbook saves by Boe on Colgate’s Sam Hunt. Twice—once in the opening period and once in the last frame—Hunt had one-on-one chances against Boe, but both times her moves to the right of the goal were met with Boe’s outstretched left leg.

Boe, along with Raimondi and Schroyer, the three Crimson seniors, were honored after the game by their fans, friends and teammates in attendance at Bright.

“I think it’s perfect for the class of 2006 to go out that way,” Raimondi said. “Hopefully we will be back two weekends from now [in the ECAC playoffs] and we’ll do it again.”

Through the weekend, the seniors has won two ECAC tournament titles, three Beanpot championships, and two Ivy League titles, and had made it to the final of the NCAA tournament three times in their Harvard careers.

“It’s been a tough challenge for them,” Stone said. “We faced a lot of adversity because we have got a young group of kids that they have had to bring along. And I think they have done it valiantly.”

—Staff writer Gabriel M. Velez can be reached at gmvelez@fas.harvard.edu.