Game One: Harvard Jumps Out Early

Last week, senior forward Jennifer Raimondi scored a goal with one second remaining in overtime to give the Crimson the win over the Golden Knights.

On Friday night, Raimondi blocked a shot with her left skate as time expired in the No. 8 Harvard women hockey team’s 1-0 victory against No. 10 Clarkson at the Bright Hockey Center.

Junior winger Jennifer Sifers scored the only goal of the night, and senior goaltender Ali Boe made 24 saves to pick up her school-record 17th career shutout, giving the Crimson the first game of the best-of-three ECAC quarterfinals.

“We talked about turning on the switch, not ramping up the dial,” Harvard coach Katie Stone said. “The first twenty minutes of the game, we really did that.”

The Crimson’s penalty kill was a large part of its success, holding Clarkson scoreless—and allowing only three shots—in four one-man advantage opportunities.

The unit was most effective in the third period, using an aggressive forecheck to prevent the Golden Knights from setting up their power play. Despite benefiting from two Harvard penalties, Clarkson managed only one shot on net and hardly threatened Boe.

“I was very pleased with our penalty kill tonight,” Stone said. “We made a few adjustments, and we communicated better and found the openings when they were there.”

Even though she endured many spans of time without facing a single shot, Boe looked sharp throughout the night.

Her most heart-stopping moment came in the fourth minute of the final frame. Skating to the left side of her net to poke at a loose puck, Boe collided with a Golden Knight and slid out of net. Down on the ice for a few ticks, she recovered to get back in net—but her stick lay out of reach, forcing her to play with a player’s stick for the rest of the possession.

“I was just trying to get the closest stick I could find from my defensemen,” Boe said. “It’s a little scary when you don’t have your own stick out there.”

But as was typical all night, Harvard played solid defense in front of its goaltender and cleared the puck out of the zone.

With Boe playing well in net, the Crimson only needed one goal for the victory, scoring the eventual game-winner just 6:36 into the opening frame.

Receiving the puck from junior blueliner Lindsay Weaver, Sifers fired a shot from the right circle. Though Golden Knights netminder Kira Hurley made the initial save, the puck slowly trickled between her pads and across the line to give the Crimson the 1-0 lead.

Harvard had several chances to extend its lead in the remainder of the period, picking up two man-advantage chances—including 56 seconds of 5-on-3 time—but the Crimson failed to capitalize on its opportunities.

Fortunately for Harvard, Sifers’ goal, coupled with Boe’s shutout, was enough to give it the 1-0 series lead.

“We were certainly looking for a little insurance,” Stone said. “But we did a nice job of holding up the one-goal lead.”

—Staff writer Karan Lodha can be reached at klodha@fas.harvard.edu.