Harvard Slams Eagles at Bright

Without head coach Katey Stone behind the bench, the No. 3 Harvard women’s hockey rolled to its highest scoring victory of the season in an easy 7-0 win over Boston College at Bright Hockey Center last night.

Stone has handed coaching duties for the week over to assistant coach Joakim Flygh, as she is currently coaching the U.S. Women’s National Under-18 team in Calgary, Alberta.

“That’s a testament to our kids that our team is well prepared,” said Flygh of the win without Stone. “It shouldn’t matter if it’s me on the bench or Coach.”

The Crimson (14-1-0, 11-0-0 ECAC) found extra motivation against the Eagles (8-8-3, 4-5-1 Hockey East) from a loss to BC last year in triple overtime of the first round of the Beanpot tournament. Jenny Brine scored the game-tying goal in that contest with eight minutes left to play but Anna McDonald, a current Harvard sophomore who transferred from BC, knocked one in for her old team at the 14:13 mark of the third overtime.

“I think for us when we played that three-overtime game it really came down to who wanted it more in the end,” Cahow said of last year’s loss. We felt that we didn’t come through with the effort we should have. Tonight was some vindication for us.”

Sticks were hot from the outset for the Crimson and only got hotter as the night progressed, as Harvard scored less than five minutes into play and Cahow added her first career hat trick to help reach the seven-goal total.

“It’s a first for me in my college career so it’s exciting but mostly I was just amazed by the passes that we’re coming my way tonight,” Cahow said of the hat trick.

Freshmen forward Kate Buesser capitalized on a rebound off a shot by classmate Katherine Chute to get the Crimson on the scoreboard at the 4:30 mark in the first period.

With less than ten minutes to go in the same period, Cahow recorded her first tally of the night off a high pass from Brine that found its way through the seams of BC’s defense.

Cahow and Brine would team up again at the 8:01 mark in the second frame, as Brine found Cahow waiting at the blue-line to wrist a shot into the back of the net.

“Jenny Brine, one of the most brilliant offensive players in the country, almost always puts the puck right on the tape,” Cahow said of her teammate.

The third stanza would prove to be the most prolific scoring effort for Harvard, as the frustrated Eagles gave the Crimson a number of power play opportunities by turning to physical defense.

Just 32 seconds into the frame, Chute found Brine open on a power play, who used a nifty spin move to stuff the puck into the left side of the net and give her team a 4-0 lead.

Chute then scored a goal of her own when she picked off BC defenders from the right side of the rink and flipped a shot passed the shoulder of the goalie at 4:51.

“Sarah Vaillancourt got hit by the other team and the puck squirted out,” she said. “I took a shot and it went in.”

Harvard’s final two goals would come off of BC penalties for interference and slashing. Junior Sarah Wilson broke free with the puck after a face-off midway through the period and snuck a shot past the goalie at the 8:06 mark.

Two minutes later, Cahow completed her hat trick off of perfect triangle passing from teammates Wilson and Brine to seal the game’s score at 7-0. The senior defenseman entered the contest leading the ECAC in defenseman scoring with 1.13 points per game, and now sits in 21st on the Crimson’s all time scoring list with 93 career points to her name.

Sophomore goalie Christina Kessler recorded her sixth shoutout of the season with the win. After posting an NCAA record 73 stops in the triple overtime win last year, BC goalie Molly Schaus stopped 34 of the 41 shots she faced from Harvard.

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