Crimson Dominates Again in Physical Contest, Advances in Conference Tourney

It might have been the shot heard ’round the ECAC when junior Kate Buesser rifled the puck past the entire Princeton defense and goalie Rachel Weber from just past the blue line. But shortly into the second period, it was clear that the No. 4 Harvard women’s hockey team (20-6-5) had more than one gun in its arsenal as it fired its way to a 4-1 victory over the Tigers—and a sweep of the ECAC quarterfinals—Saturday afternoon at Bright Hockey Center.

Princeton (13-14-4) came out hard early in a game of possession scrambles and physical hockey. But while the Tigers’ hits mainly came on opposing players, the Crimson directed its aggression towards the puck, outshooting its opponent, 14-2, in the first period.

“It was a physical weekend, no question,” Harvard coach Katey Stone said. “But, you know, I like how our kids weathered the storm when there was a little bit of pressure put on them. They turned it right back on Princeton.”

But the Tigers’ physicality prevented the Crimson from getting clean shots off close to the net and stumped Harvard for the first eight minutes of the game. Unable to move the puck past a wall of black and orange, freshman Josephine Pucci fired the puck to the top of the zone where Buesser waited unguarded.

The junior fired the puck through a crowd of Tigers to put the Crimson up by one.

That shot opened up the floodgates. The forward’s goal gave Princeton no choice but to cover Harvard’s forwards across the ice, which opened up the ice around the cage for future Crimson infiltrations.

But before Harvard ran up the score, it had to kill two first-period penalties. The Crimson used its speed to pressure the Tigers and hold them scoreless on the power play.

“It’s easy to kill a penalty when your two forwards are in there forechecking and they can’t even get it out of the zone,” co-captain Kathryn Farni said. “So they make our job easier. If the puck does get in our end, we have a lot of energy to go forecheck.”

“We did a nice job getting in lanes,” Stone added. “More importantly, when there was a puck in front of the net, we cleared it well.”

When the Crimson had all five skaters on the ice, Princeton seemed bewildered, as Harvard kept finding creative ways to put the puck in the net.

“That makes coaches feel really good, because then you’re hard to scout, you’re hard to play against,” Stone said.

Fifteen minutes of ice time after Buesser scored with raw power, freshman Kaitlin Spurling added her own flair to the game, backhanding the puck into the goal shortly after senior Anna McDonald’s rush had offset the Tiger defense.

“We really got into the thick of it down at their end and in the trenches and scored some good and ugly goals as a result of it,” Stone said.

Despite Stone’s characterization, nearly all of the Crimson’s goals came cleanly. Less than three minutes after Spurling’s score, junior Liza Ryabkina solved Weber for her third goal of the weekend. Once again, Pucci was there to get the puck to her upperclassman teammate, sending the puck across the zone, where Ryabkina had an open look.

“It was big for us to come out strong in the second,” senior Randi Griffin said. “At that point in the game, it could have gone either way. If they had gotten a lucky break or gotten a goal or something, they would be so pumped, because for them the season was really on the line.”

By this time in the game, Harvard’s superior conditioning was evident. With the Crimson controlling possession, the Tigers went looking for the puck and seemed to find the penalty box instead, committing three second-period penalties.

“We’re in really good shape,” Griffin said, “which has to do with how hard coach pushes us in practice, and how hard they push us in the gym.”

With its season on the line, Princeton picked up its game in the third period. After being outshot, 11-3, in the second, the Tigers were only outshot by three in the third, and one of those shots managed to find the back of the net. Melanie Wallace lifted the puck into the high corner of the net on an unassisted play at 6:19, reducing the deficit to 3-1.

Unable to solve Harvard goaltender Laura Bellamy again, Princeton pulled Weber with about two minutes left in regulation. But the Crimson had already killed six penalties by that point and wasn’t intimidated by the man-down situation.

With an empty net waiting at the other end of the ice, all Harvard needed was a possession.

Ryabkina found the puck and charged down the side of the ice, but a Tiger skater slammed her into the boards. As she was hit, Ryabkina managed to send the puck to the middle of the ice, where a wide open Jillian Dempsey picked it up.

With a minute and a half remaining in regulation, the freshman sent the puck into the open net, Harvard into the ECAC semifinals, and the Tigers back to New Jersey.

“We did just what we wanted to do today,” Griffin said.

—Staff writer Christina C. McClintock can be reached at ccmcclin@fas.harvard.edu.