Goaltending Plays Key Role in Scoreless Tie

The season-high crowd of 631 at Bright Hockey Center on Friday evening did not get to witness any goals, but, because of that, it was privy to a piece of Harvard hockey history.

The Crimson (10-7-3, 7-3-3 ECAC) and Brown (11-9-3, 9-3-2) battled to a scoreless draw, the first ever in the Harvard women’s program.

The result left the two teams bunched amid a handful of teams atop the ECAC standings as they entered the stretch run of the conference schedule.

Both squads generated a fair share of looks at the net throughout the contest, but the dueling goaltenders were equal to the challenge, each pitching shutouts for 65 minutes. On the Harvard side, it was a fresh face between the pipes, with freshman Brittany Martin starting in place of concussed regular Ali Boe. Martin stopped 32 shots on the night, including five during a busy overtime period. Her counterpart, Bears sophomore O’Hara Shipe, finished with 45 saves.

“It was a great hockey game,” Harvard coach Katey Stone said. “The goaltenders were tremendous. We had our chances—we mounted a lot of pressure at different sports during the game. But again, goaltending was the factor tonight, at both ends of the ice.”

The Crimson stormed out of the gates at the start, launching 21 shots on net in the opening period. However, as Shipe got settled, the pace of the game slowed, and its power-play chances disappeared, Harvard’s offensive attack ebbed. After following with 15 shots in the middle frame, it mustered only seven in the final twenty minutes.

A large part of the discrepancy could be attributed to special teams play. The Crimson received three one-man advantages in each of the first two periods, but just one in the third—on a checking call artfully drawn by speedy junior Jennifer Sifers—as the string of whistles that marked the beginning of the game largely vanished towards the end. That extra-skater opportunity also went for naught, though, as Harvard found itself able to do everything but put the puck in the net.

“We had good looks at the net on our power play,” Stone said. “I’m happy with the way they’re moving the puck, we’re getting some good looks at the net, and sooner or later, they drop.”

In contrast, Brown did not get off a single shot on its own power play in the first forty minutes, stifled by a ferocious Crimson penalty kill, before getting several good looks at a game-winner in the final period and overtime.

“Harvard’s penalty kill is very high-pressure,” Bears coach Digit Murphy said. “They’re very fast and we just couldn’t get our power play going. We couldn’t get loose from them. They’re a good penalty kill team, very speedy.”

Harvard, however, was fortified by a more comfortable and cohesive back line and some truly heady play in net by Martin. The youngster, who learned she would get her third collegiate start on Wednesday, was nimble with the glove, corralled rebounds, and dove fearlessly to knock away loose pucks despite being the only goalie listed on the game-time roster.

Martin “gave us everything,” Stone said. “She was dead-on on all the pucks. She controlled her rebounds, she was aggressive when she needed to be. The kid’s got moxie jumping out like that head-first. She played with a lot of confidence and a lot of poise in a very pressure-cooker game.”

“I just wanted to step up to the plate,” Martin added, also praising the efforts of Shipe in the opposite net. “Their goalie did a good job. Props to her. It was a battle of goaltending. Just a good game.”

The end result was emblematic of the state of the conference as a whole, punctuated by exciting action up and down the ice and emerging parity that makes wins harder and harder to come by.

“I think if either team lost, it would have been a travesty,” Murphy said. “It was a fast game, I thought it was exciting. I mean, not enough goals for the fans. Clearly, in a 0-0 tie, goaltending is going to be the story. There’s not bad goaltending anywhere in the ECAC anymore. It’s a great league with a lot of solid competition.”

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