Women's Hockey Shocked by Raiders After Big Win

It was a Jekyll-and-Hyde Harvard women’s hockey team that took the ice this weekend against conference foes Cornell and Colgate.

Friday night in Ithaca, N.Y., the Olympic trio of Julie Chu, Sarah Vaillancourt, and Caitlin Cahow combined for 17 points as the Crimson (18-6-2, 15-4-1 ECAC) skated to a 9-1 win over the Big Red (3-22-2, 3-16-1). But the following afternoon in Hamilton, not one of the three got on the board in a near-silent 3-1 loss to the Red Raiders (14-13-2, 13-6-1).

No. 6 Harvard had hoped to use this weekend’s road campaign against the two unranked conference opponents to get back on track after a heartbreaking triple-overtime loss to Boston College in the opening round of the Beanpot on Tuesday.

“When you go into triple overtime, it’s always a tough loss, especially at the Beanpot,” senior co-captain Julie Chu said. “It means a lot to Boston schools and it means a lot to our program so...we wanted to come out this weekend with a strong effort.”

The Crimson returns to the ice tomorrow evening for the Beanpot’s consolation match against Northeastern and will conclude conference play this weekend at Bright Hockey Center against Yale and Brown.

COLGATE 3, HARVARD 1

Colgate was a model of consistency in its first ever win against Harvard, scoring once in each period to upset the Crimson at Starr Rink.

“Overall, our team did not do a great job of possessing the puck,” Chu said. “We had moments when we were all on the same page and then moments when we gave the puck back to Colgate.”

Co-captain Jennifer Sifers initiated the scoring when senior Katie Johnston found her alone by the net on the power play at 7:34 into the frame.

That was all that would be heard from the Crimson sticks that night.

Harvard squandered its next four power-play opportunities, missing the mark on 22 shots taken over the course of nearly seven minutes with the man-advantage.

On defense, the Crimson struggled to clear the puck and allowed the Raiders to rifle three shots past rookie goalie Christina Kessler. Kessler made 15 saves in the game, while her counterpart, Colgate senior Brook Wheeler, recorded 31 stops on the school’s senior day to thwart a Crimson offense that outshot the Raiders, 32-18.

Earlier in the year, Harvard, playing without its Olympians, just squeaked by Colgate in a 4-3 overtime win at home. The Raiders are currently fourth in the strong ECAC while Harvard sits in a tie for second with St. Lawrence.

“It’s not going to be easy from here on out and we knew that Colgate was a good team,” Chu said. “We didn’t have the poise with the puck that we would have liked.”

HARVARD 9, CORNELL 1

Harvard looked to have shaken off the Beanpot loss from the outset of Friday night’s game, blowing out Cornell, 9-1, at Lynah Rink.

“It was just one of those games where the puck found its way to the net for us,” Chu said. “A 9-1 score is a symbol of a little bit of luck and hard work.”

An explosive Crimson squad took the ice in the second period, as a slew of power-play attacks saw the score balloon to 8-1.

Just 1:20 into the frame, Weaver notched her second goal of the night on a man advantage to pave the way for the team’s almost unstoppable Olympians. Vaillancourt put up her first score of the night on a power play just 46 seconds later and would go on to score three more times that period. Chu added two tallies to finish the contest with three goals and two assists, while Cahow had five assists to her name. Sophomore defender Kati Vaughn finished with three helpers.

In a game in which Cornell only managed 12 shots on net, nine of those were taken in the first period as the Big Red kept the Crimson within striking distance on a score by Brittany Forgues that made it 2-1.

“For 10 minutes we played strong and then for 10 minutes we had a bit of a lapse,” Chu said of the opening frame.

With a total of five points in the game, Chu passed Nicole Corriero ’05 for third on Harvard’s career scoring chart. However, she would see a streak of 26 games with at least one point come to an end the following afternoon in Hamilton.

Kessler, who made both starts this weekend, had 11 saves in Friday’s win.

—Staff writer Rebecca A. Compton can be reached at compton@fas.harvard.edu.