Harvard, Clarkson Divided By Slimmest of Margins

That yesterday’s decisive third game of the ECAC quarterfinal series between No. 8 Harvard and No. 10 Clarkson, the fourth and fifth seeds in the tournament, stretched into double overtime came as no surprise to those following the recent action between the two squads. It was the fifth meeting of the season between the Crimson and the Golden Knights, and all five have been decided by a one-goal margin.

A Harvard comeback fell one score short in a 4-3 loss during Clarkson’s regular-season visit to the Bright Hockey Center. The Crimson got even with a last-minute equalizer and a last-second game-winner, both by senior Jennifer Raimondi, on the road in Potsdam, N.Y. to steal a 3-2 victory last Saturday.

Then came this weekend’s three-game slugfest. Harvard nipped the Golden Knights in a 1-0 win Friday night, but fell, 2-1, on a sudden-death overtime tally on Saturday. The series of hard-fought, closely-contested clashes culminated with yesterday’s double-OT thriller.

“I was starting to think my middle name was Overtime,” Crimson coach Katey Stone said, “I thought it was a great series overall. We match up really well, particularly this year. You knew it was going to be close.”

The slew of one-goal margins marked the improvement of the Clarkson program and the growing parity in the ECAC. Last year, the teams also met in the conference quarters, but the Crimson dominated, winning 5-0 and 3-1.

In all, the two teams spent five hours, 48 minutes, and 58 seconds, 223:59 coming this weekend, together on the ice this winter, and wound up with a combined score of 10-9.

“SNIPES” SIFERS

The Crimson offense in yesterday’s game could be summed up in one word: Snipes.

That’s the nickname of junior forward Jennifer Sifers, who scored both of Harvard’s goals on the afternoon. After tying the contest at 1 with 1:24 left in the second period, Sifers ended it with a screaming wrist shot into the top left corner of the net at the 4:22 mark of the second overtime. Sifers took a feed from classmate and linemate Liza Solley and streaked across the blue line before uncorking the game-winner that eluded Golden Knights netminder Kira Hurley.

"She's a rock star," Stone said of Sifers. "She ripped it. We call her Snipes. It's kind of a joke, but that was a snipe today. That last shot was a great shot."

Sifers, an incredibly fast and well-conditioned skater, became a prime candidate to notch the golden goal as the game wore on.

“We’ve been to overtime so many times this year, it’s nothing new,” Sifers said. “I think everybody just sat back and found it within themselves to put everything they had out there.”

Sifers has a bit of a history of scoring on big occasions for the Crimson. Her top-shelf strike in the NCAA Final against Minnesota last spring was a game-tying laser beam.

OLYMPIAN SIGHTINGS

Harvard’s three inactive Olympians—Julie Chu, Caitlin Cahow, and Sarah Vaillancourt—were all on hand at Bright Center yesterday to cheer on their teammates. The trio took the year off from school to participate in the Games in Turin, but were on campus just days after their trip to Italy to lend support to the Crimson in its bid to keep its season alive against Clarkson. The squad, for its part, found their visit motivational.

"We're so happy to see them at our games, it really gives us a lot of motivation," Sifers said. "It's great to have a team that's so close like this."

THE REST OF THE FIELD

The other host teams, the top three seeds in the ECAC tournament, all swept their quarterfinal series this weekend. Top-seeded St. Lawrence easily dispatched Yale by 6-3 and 6-2 counts, Princeton bested Colgate by 3-0 and 5-4 marks, and Brown overcame visiting Dartmouth by 4-2 and 3-0 finals. That sets up the expected match-ups next weekend at late-round host St. Lawrence’s Appleton Arena. Harvard will meet the Saints and the Tigers will square off against the Bears this Saturday. The winners will meet in Sunday’s final, with an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament on the line.



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