Late Goal Propels Women's Hockey to Victory over Northeastern

Though it did not come how the No. 4/5 Harvard women’s hockey team imagined, the Crimson extended its unbeaten streak to 10 games with a 3-2 win over Northeastern at the Bright-Landry Hockey Center Saturday.

Originally, Harvard was slated to face the Huskies at Fenway Park on Thursday. The team was excited for its first-ever outdoor game, a potentially memorable day it had looked forward to after a grueling first couple months of the season. The game’s last-minute cancellation due to weather was deflating, but a third-period go-ahead game-winner made the situation slightly more palatable.

Harvard (10-1-2, 7-1-1 ECAC) held a 2-1 lead for over 20 minutes before Northeastern (7-11-1, 3-5-1 Hockey East) tied the game at two late in the third. The Crimson had watched third-period leads disappear in similar fashion against Cornell and Boston College earlier in the year, but managed to avoid a third tie Saturday.

With just over two minutes left, freshman Sydney Daniels raced up the ice to get in good position before redirecting a feed from junior Samantha Reber, diverting the puck across the Husky goaltender and into the corner of the goal.

Daniels said the team did not lose confidence when the Huskies tied the game.

“We knew we were going to come back,” she said.

Northeastern did not go down easy though, posting four straight shots within 20 seconds of Daniels’ goal. The final one prompted a video review before the officials ruled sophomore goaltender Emerance Maschmeyer had kept the puck out to secure the win.

Though Harvard emerged victorious, it started slow.

Eight minutes into the first period, the Huskies found the game’s first goal, ending a two-month stretch in which the Crimson never trailed.

“It was a slow start for sure, not our prettiest game,” Harvard coach Maura Crowell said, “but we worked the rust off.”

With that goal, it appeared that the momentum the Crimson gathered in December had not survived the changing of the calendar. Harvard had not lost a game since Nov. 1, but did not play a game between Dec. 7 and Saturday. The lack of momentum was particularly clear for the team’s leading goal-scorer, sophomore Miye D’Oench, who had just one shot.

“It does feel like a restart,” Crowell said. “Getting into the flow of a 60-minute game is an adjustment after a month break.”

Still, the Crimson responded to the Huskies’ early tally as it has responded to adversity all year—somebody new stepped up.

This time it was senior Gina McDonald. Within a minute of Northeastern’s goal, McDonald won a loose puck along the offensive end boards and pushed it to junior captain Marissa Gedman, who fired a shot that deflected off a stick and into the net.

In the second period, McDonald did it by herself. On a short-handed breakaway after taking control of a loose puck in the neutral zone, McDonald threatened a forehand before deftly finding twine with a backhand.

McDonald’s second goal of the season would not be enough though, as Northeastern’s Hayley Scamurra tied the game, setting up Daniels’ game-winner.

Daniels finished the game with seven shots and is now second on the team with six goals. She has tallied five goals in the team’s last seven games and scored the game-winner against St. Lawrence as well as a big goal in the tie with Cornell earlier this season.

Initially, Harvard’s skaters were supposed to show how far they’ve come in the absence of key players the team lost to graduation, injury, and the Olympic squad in 2013 on a bigger stage. The Crimson’s three members of the Olympic team were even supposed to be in attendance at Fenway. That did not happen, but Harvard still showed how it has accrued the longest active unbeaten streak in the ECAC.

The win also extended the Crimson’s home unbeaten streak to 10 games. It has not lost at Bright-Landry Hockey Center this season. Harvard will see Northeastern again in exactly a month when the two teams play in the Women’s Beanpot at Boston College.

“We’re very resilient; we’ve faced a lot of adversity on and off the ice this year,” Crowell said. “We certainly weathered the storm tonight and got the win.”

—Staff writer Jacob D. H. Feldman can be reached at jacob.feldman@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @jacobfeldman4.