Women's Hockey Shines on Senior Night

Harvard women’s hockey wrapped up the regular season on a high note Saturday afternoon, defeating Brown (10-17-2, 6-15-1 ECAC), 4-0, at Bright Hockey Center.

As the season finale, Saturday’s game was the senior night for Crimson seniors Julie Chu, Jennifer Sifers, Lindsay Weaver, Katie Johnston, and Liza Solley.

“It was a great night and an emotional night in many ways,” Chu said. “I’m just really proud of the team and of the senior class.”

The game proved to be very physical as the Bears accumulated 11 penalties and Harvard had five.

“The game was extremely physical,” co-captain Sifers said. “They had a lot of penalties, which was good for our power plays to practice.”

The Crimson took the lead for good at 18:44 into the first frame, as it capitalized on a 5-on-3 power-play advantage. Chu and sophomore Kati Vaughn worked the puck around to junior Caitlin Cahow, who one-timed the puck past Brown goaltender Nicole Stock.

Harvard added to its lead when sophomore Sarah Vaillancourt and Chu perfectly executed a 2-on-1. Vaillancourt dished the puck to Chu, who performed a superb fake and dumped the backhand shot past Stock’s right side.

Chu and Vaillancourt connected again on a man-advantage at 3:53 into the third period as Chu crossed the puck to Vaillancourt in the left circle. Vaillancourt slapped the puck into the net, giving the Crimson a 3-0 cushion.

With 4:23 left in regulation, Chu passed to Sifers, who dished the puck up to Vaillancourt for a breakaway that she finished with a goal past Stock’s left side.

Chu ended up with a goal and three assists, figuring in all four of the team’s scores.

“When you play in the moment, the points and the goals are secondary,” Chu said. “We focus on the team’s [performance].”

Four goals were more than enough for Harvard sophomore goaltender Brittany Martin. Martin finished with 15 saves—eight of which came in the final period—to record her sixth shutout of the season.

Following Friday night’s overtime win over Yale, Saturday’s victory closed Harvard’s season tied for second with St. Lawrence in the ECAC standings. Still, the Crimson will start the conference tournament this weekend as the third seed due to the Saints’ two wins over Harvard earlier this year.

First-place Dartmouth’s overtime win over the Bulldogs prevented Harvard from claiming a share of the Ivy League title and set up a rematch with Yale in a best-of-three ECAC quarterfinal series this weekend.

After participating in the annual Beanpot Tournament earlier this month, this week will be the first full week of practice the Crimson has had in almost three weeks.

“You’re not able to do a lot of stuff when practice is about recovery,” said Harvard head coach Katey Stone. “We’re looking forward to this week and getting some rest but also spending some time working on a lot of different things.”

Though Saturday’s game was the last regular season home game for the five Crimson seniors, Harvard will be back at home for the quarterfinal games against Yale.

“We obviously had a lot of emotion with our seniors, being the last home regular ECAC game,” Sifers said. “But luckily, it was just that. It wasn’t our last home game ever.”

The Crimson, vying for its fourth consecutive ECAC tournament championship, returns to the Bright Hockey Center ice this Friday at 3:30 p.m. to face the Bulldogs.