AMOR PERFECT UNION: Though Bitter, Season Sweet

DULUTH, Minn.—It was supposed to be different this time.

Different location, different round, different rankings, etc.

And the game itself was different—much different. But the result, that was the same.

When the Harvard women’s hockey team faced off against Wisconsin in the NCAA quarterfinals round last season, the Crimson was at a severe disadvantage.

The Badgers were ranked No. 1 in the nation, while Harvard squeaked into the NCAA Tournament at No. 6. The game was played at Wisconsin’s home turf in Madison, a far cry from Cambridge despite the similar climates. Wisconsin was the defending national champion, while the Crimson was a few years removed from its last Frozen Four appearance.

Yet somehow, Harvard made a game of it. A hell of a game.

The Crimson took the Badgers into four grueling overtime periods, and although Harvard ended up losing, 1-0, what it accomplished was nothing short of remarkable.

This year, the Crimson met Wisconsin in the NCAA Frozen Four semifinals with all the odds stacked in its favor. While the game was played in a neutral location in Duluth, Minn., Harvard was the team with the No. 1 ranking, having cruised to a 32-1-0 season in which the team won the Beanpot, swept through the ECAC playoffs, and trounced Dartmouth, 5-1, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

No. 4 Wisconsin, while certainly one of the top teams in the nation, barely edged No. 5 Minnesota in overtime to make it to the Frozen Four after losing in the finals of the WCHA playoffs. Essentially, the Badgers were the underdog.

But the game didn’t play out that way. Harvard took an early 1-0 lead and kept it until the end of the first period, but seven minutes and three Wisconsin goals later, the Crimson was resigned to playing catchup and couldn’t convert on some painfully close scoring opportunities.

Then, in the opening minutes of the third period, up 3-1, the Badgers did what the favored team is expected to do: they scored swiftly and mercilessly, putting the puck in the net, the nail in the coffin, and the game out of reach. Only the Badgers weren’t the favorite. Harvard was.

But if there’s one thing that should be obvious by now, it’s that none of that matters in the postseason. As Wisconsin coach Mark Johnson said in the post-game press conference, “every game has a story.”

The story of this game was that the Badgers played a better 60 minutes of hockey than the Crimson.

But if there is some consolation for Harvard, it’s that although last night was the end, it was by no means the entirety of the story of this season. What the Crimson accomplished this year can be dampened, but not diminished, by one loss, no matter how heartbreaking and anticlimactic.

Harvard’s Beanpot, its conference championship, and its record only begin to describe how this team could dominate entire games, make come-from-behind victories appear out of thin air, and speak sincerely about how all success, even individual, was the result of a group effort, despite the roll of a reporter’s eyes.

Tri-captain Caitlin Cahow, who has been around this team longer than anyone else on the roster and has played her last game in a Harvard uniform, spoke repeatedly this season about how this team was special, different from the others she had played on.

That doesn’t change because of one game.

That the Crimson lost last night does not change either, and when the team looks back on this season, it will have to take the bad with the good, but when junior Jenny Brine said “We’re going to end this season with our heads held high,” she had every right to.

—Staff writer Loren Amor can be reached at lamor@fas.harvard.edu.