Women's Hockey Beats Dartmouth in Return to Bright-Landry

It’s good to be home.

Playing at Bright-Landry Hockey Center for the first time in over a month, the No. 10/10 Harvard women’s ice hockey team returned to its winning ways on home ice Tuesday night. In the team’s first Ivy League matchup of the year, the Crimson cruised to a 4-1 win over conference rival Dartmouth.

Harvard scored three unanswered goals in the second and third periods while Crimson junior forward Miye D’Oench led all scorers with a goal an assist.

After starting off the year with three straight home wins, Harvard (4-2-2, 3-1-1 ECAC) has struggled to find its form early this season, notching only one win in its five-game road stint leading up its matchup against the Big Green. The Crimson found itself sixth in the ECAC heading into Tuesday night’s contest, with the visitors just one point behind in the standings.

Dartmouth (4-4-0, 2-3-0 ECAC) has similarly struggled of late, having registered three straight losses heading into the matchup at Bright-Landry.

“We don’t have the record that we wanted,” D’Oench said after the game. “But the great thing about hockey is that it’s a fresh start every game. There’s always time to turn over a new leaf, and that’s exactly what we did tonight.”

Harvard got off to a quick start, outshooting the Big Green, 9-3, in the first ten minutes of the period.

D’Oench put the Crimson on the board first, finding the back of the net less than eight minutes into the contest. A penalty on Dartmouth senior Samantha Zeiss gave Harvard the man advantage, and the junior capitalized on a rebound off an outside shot from tri-captain defender Michelle Picard to give the Crimson the 1-0 edge.

Despite outshooting the Big Green, 15-8, on the period, Harvard couldn’t keep the lead through the first 20 minutes of play. Dartmouth was quick to bounce back from the early deficit, as freshman Brooke Ahbe scored her first collegiate goal to tie it up at one apiece with 8:30 left in the frame.

Things became heated on the ice as the two Ivy League rivals played for the first time this season. Harvard had two roughing penalties on the night, but the Crimson defense killed both Big Green power play opportunities.

“It’s always a tough battle between Dartmouth and Harvard,” Harvard coach Katey Stone said.

“It’s a spirited rivalry, and that’s a good thing, as long as it doesn’t get out of hand. Things got a little carried away early on, but then they settled down. And our kids handled it really well.”

Coming off the first break, Harvard laid down the pressure in the second period, keeping most of the scoring chances in the Big Green’s zone.

“Our kids knew they were playing well,” Stone said of the team’s second frame spark. “That was giving them confidence. All three lines were flying.”

Halfway through the middle frame, the Crimson had a bevy of good looks, rallying off nine straight shots in front of the net before senior forward Hillary Crowe finally split the pipes off a feed from tri-captain forward Samantha Reber, giving Harvard the 2-1 edge.

The Crimson continued to mount the offensive pressure in the third. Freshman Haley Mullins deflected a shot from junior forward Mary Parker into the goal at 4:49 in the period to give Harvard a two-goal cushion. The assist was Parker’s second of the night.

With three minutes left to play, senior defender Sarah Edney added one last goal to seal the Crimson’s victory, beating Dartmouth goaltender Robyn Chemago glove-side from long range.

“This was one of the first times we played a full 60 minutes of Harvard hockey,” D’Oench said. “We were relentless, we pressured them all over the ice and didn’t give them room to breathe.”

Junior goaltender Emerance Maschmeyer was solid for Harvard between the pipes, with 27 saves on the nice. Chemago put up 38 saves, but the Crimson offense overpowered the Big Green with 42 shots.

After falling to No. 1/1 Boston College in a 10-2 blowout on the road last weekend, Harvard has bounced back with a pair of wins. Stone has seen positives in the team’s response to its early season setbacks.

“We’ve played a tough schedule at the beginning of the year here,” Stone said. “We’ve taken our lumps a little bit, but we’ve learned a lot. We keep building our confidence, and things keep getting better.”

—Staff writer Brenna R. Nelsen can be reached at brenna.nelsen@thecrimson.com.