Harvard Falls to Gophers Once Again

After dropping a defensive battle against No. 2 Minnesota (14-2-0, 8-2-0 WCHA) on Saturday, the No. 9 Harvard women’s hockey team (5-4-0, 5-2-0 Ivy) hoped to improve on its 2-1 loss to the Gophers in a rematch Sunday afternoon.

But two Minnesota goals in the first three minutes of play quickly put the Crimson in a deficit from which it would not recover, as the Gophers earned their second victory in two days, 7-3, at Bright Hockey Center.

“It’s obviously a disappointing result, losing 7-3,” said junior assistant captain Josephine Pucci. “We came out hard [on Saturday]. We were content with our effort, but we were hoping that it was something we could build on for today. ... We just know where we want to be now, and we’re going to work hard to get there.”

The Minnesota offense first lit the scoreboard at 1:46, as Rachael Bona finished a well-placed pass from teammate Meghan Lorence. Less than a minute later, Kelly Terry—who earned a hat trick Sunday with three first-period goals—netted her fourth goal of the season from close range to put the Gophers up by two.

“It was a track meet,” Crimson coach Katey Stone said. “We helped them out a lot on offense with our turnovers. We have to take care of the puck better. They have some highly skilled kids who can shoot the puck. ... Start-to-finish, top-to-bottom of the roster, we can play better.”

Harvard kept the game within reach with a goal of its own from sophomore forward Gina McDonald, who collected a pass from classmate Kelsey Romatoski directly in front of the goal at 4:25 and placed it past Minnesota goaltender Noora Raty.

“It’s tough to be down two goals right away,” Pucci said. “But it was good on our part to get one. It gave us a little bit of momentum.”

But Terry earned another goal soon after a tripping penalty landed Pucci in the penalty box. The Gophers’ third goal was the contest’s fourth tally in the first five minutes of play.

“That’s the first time it’s happened all year where that many goals are scored [early on],” Pucci said. “Defensively we weren’t where we needed to be at the start of the game. It’s disappointing, but looking forward its something we can build on.”

After a brief reprieve, scoring picked up again toward the end of the period, as Terry netted her third goal of the game at 13:25.

Down 4-1, Harvard converted on a power play, as sophomore defenseman Marissa Gedman found Pucci. The junior played the puck across the net to classmate Jillian Dempsey, who finished on the play to keep Harvard within two.

“I’ve said this once before, but getting on the power play is a great opportunity,” Pucci said. “We’re always getting really excited to be out there when we’re on the power play and hoping to execute. It’s a great opportunity to get the momentum back, so it was great to take advantage of a couple of those opportunities.”

The Crimson outshot the Gophers, 10-9, in the first frame with three shots on goal coming in the final minute of the period.

“[We had a] critical, critical mistake in the first period and that set the tone,” Stone said. “You can’t make mistakes like that and let them walk in on a free lunch basically. ... I’m pleased about how we fought to the end, but we made a lot of mistakes in there, and they capitalized on them.”

In the second frame, Minnesota stretched its lead to three at 3:07 with a power-play tally from Jenn Schoullis after a scramble in front of the Crimson net.

“What you hope for as a coach is that the officiating is not an issue, and yesterday it was a little bit; today it was a little bit,” Stone said. “We did an average job killing penalties [which was] disappointing, because we’ve been very good at it [so far this season]. We let them off the hook a few times.”

Harvard put the game back within two goals on a two-man advantage, as freshman defenseman Sarah Edney netted her third goal of her rookie campaign. Gedman and Pucci were credited with assists on the play.

“Sarah Edney played great today,” Stone said. “It’s early in our season. We’re still trying to figure out where people need to be in certain situations. … It was a good spot for her and Gedman did a good job finding her. It was a good [shot]. Their goaltender comes out, so it was nice to be able to put the puck in behind her.”

The third period was all Minnesota, as the Gophers tallied two more goals to push the final score to seven.

“I had a feeling this game was going to be wide open today, because yesterday was so close,” Stone said. “Obviously it doesn’t feel good at all, but we’re going to take away a lot of this and hopefully we’ll see them again.”

—Staff writer Catherine E. Coppinger can be reached at ccoppinger@college.harvard.edu.