Women's Hockey Opens Season With Win Over Quinnipiac

The Harvard women’s hockey team took the ice for its regular season opener without 2012-13 captains Laura Bellamy ’13 and Jillian Dempsey ’13 or stars Josephine Pucci, Lyndsey Fry, or Josephine Piccard, all of whom are current practicing with the U.S. National Team. The Crimson also played without Kalley Armstrong and senior Elizabeth Parker, who were both out with injuries.

Instead, Harvard played with just one senior among only 15 skaters. But against Quinnipiac, all the losses didn’t hurt the Crimson. It had plenty of firepower.

Sophomore Dylanne Crugnale scored two goals, junior Sarah Edney tallied three points, and Harvard beat the Bobcats, 4-2.

Just over a minute after Quinnipiac had cut the deficit to one goal in the second period, Edney scored a power-play goal to put the Crimson up by two again. Later in the second, Crugnale stole the puck in the offensive slot, made a quick deke and sent a shot by Bobcat goalie Laden Chelsea to give Harvard a 4-1 advantage.

The Bobcats found a late goal in the third, but never really made the Crimson nervous again.

The young and short-staffed Crimson squad started the game slow, but found its stride in the second period, scoring four goals in 10 minutes. The first tally came 1:33 into the period Edney fired a shot at the Quinnipiac goal. Chelsea stopped the initial attempt, but junior Hillary Crowe was there to fire the rebound past Chelsea.

Harvard scored its second goal two minutes later in similar fashion. An Edney shot let to a battle for the puck right in front of the Bobcat goal. Eventually, Crugnale located the puck and got it by Chelsea to put the Crimson up, 2-0.

Within a minute though, Quinnipiac showed signs of life. Bobcat Morgan Fritz-Ward carried the puck along the boards before flicking a centering pass. Nicole Brown was there to redirect the pass by Harvard goalie Emerance Maschmeyer.

A tripping penalty 40 seconds later set up Edney’s goal. On the power play, the junior collected a loose puck, cut to the middle, and fired a snipe over Laden’s glove to give Harvard a 3-1 lead.

Crugnale’s second tally of the game two minutes later gave the Maschmeyer some insurance. The sophomore goaltender would not need it, stopping 19 shots to earn the win.

The win is Maura Crowell’s first as Harvard’s interim coach while Katey Stone takes the year off to lead the U.S. National Team in the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia. It could have major standings implications down the road. Harvard was predicted to finish third in the ECAC, while Quinnipiac was slotted fourth.

Check thecrimson.com for updates.