Crimson Falls in ECAC Semis

With 15:40 to play in the second period of the ECAC Semifinals, Dartmouth forward Amanda Trunzo took advantage of a 5-on-4 player advantage and snuck a slapshot into the back of the Harvard net—a goal that ended a 1-1 tie and, effectively, the Crimson’s season.

Unfortunately for Harvard (17-11-4, 14-6-3 ECAC), this was a lead the No. 9 Big Green (22-10-0, 16-7-0) would not relinquish.

Dartmouth went on to score two more second-period goals on the way to a 4-1 win over the Crimson at Bright Hockey center last night.

“They were one step ahead of us,” Harvard coach Katy Stone said. “They thought faster and they were grittier.”

The Big Green was the first team to light up the scoreboard, as a scramble around the Crimson net allowed Trunzo to put the puck behind sophomore goaltender Laura Bellamy with just over eight minutes to play in the first frame.

But with 3:23 to play in the same period, sophomore Josephine Pucci answered for Harvard with a goal of her own.

After a long Crimson possession, tri-captain Leanna Coskren sent the puck to the sophomore, who smacked a quick shot from just inside the blue line at the Dartmouth goal. The puck deflected off of Big Green goaltender Lindsay Holdcroft and rolled into the net to tie up the score.

“No one wants to go down by any [number of] goals,” Coskren said. “For [Pucci] to score, that was huge for us to get a little momentum. She has a great one-timer. I knew when I had the puck, if I got it over to her she was going to get a great shot off. That’s been her sweet spot this season.”

“It’s kind of exactly what you hope for: a quick shot, straight at the net, and the puck goes in,” Stone added. “We would have liked to have a little more of that in the [final] two periods.”

The second period was all Dartmouth, as the Big Green scored three goals in just over seven minutes.

Dartmouth forward Camille Dumais netted the final goal of the game at 10:56 in the middle frame, giving the Big Green a comfortable three-goal advantage.

“When you go down three goals, you dig a hole for yourself,” Stone said. “We’ve been good at coming back … We have a lot of firepower, a lot of speed and we put a lot of pressure on [Dartmouth], but they were able to withstand it.”

Despite a big third period effort in which Harvard outshot the Big Green, 17-5, Dartmouth held onto its lead to end the Crimson’s season and ECAC tournament run.

“[Coming into] the third, we knew we were in a do-or-die situation,” Coskren said. “We’ve unfortunately been in these situations a lot of times before—down by a couple of goals going into the third period—and in those games we have come back.”

“We didn’t count ourselves out, [and it’s] important to make sure we never do that,” she continued. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t win it tonight, but our effort was definitely there.”

Holdcroft had 32 saves on the night to help the Big Green extend its season. Bellamy had a strong game between the pipes as well, recording 23 saves for Harvard.

Senior forward Katharine Chute won 15 faceoffs in last night’s game, more than any other player on either team.

“We came on strong in the third period and did a lot of good things, but we never had the kind of chances we wanted to have,” Stone said. “My hat’s off to them and the pressure they put on us. They shut down our speed, and the goaltender made the saves she needed to make.”

The Crimson won both games against Dartmouth in the regular season, by scores of 5-3 and 3-2, but it is the Big Green that will advance to the ECAC Finals next weekend in the hopes of earning a berth in the NCAA tournament.

Dartmouth will take on No. 2 Cornell, which defeated Quinnipiac, 4-3, in last night’s other ECAC semifinal matchup.

“It’s unfortunate, because we’ve had a tremendous second half of the season to put ourselves in this position,” Stone said. “I’ve been so proud of the kids to get to this point, and it’s disappointing to be a little flat tonight.”

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