ECAC Title Eludes Women's Hockey

Entering the final weekend of regular season play, the No. 5/5 Harvard women’s ice hockey team had a pair of titles on the line. Road tests at Yale and Brown would determine if the Crimson (21-4-4, 16-3-3 ECAC) could lock up the Ivy League Championship as well as the No. 1 seed in the ECAC tournament.

Unfortunately for Harvard, a tie against the Bulldogs (8-14-7, 6-9-7) on Friday evening was not enough for the ECAC regular season conference championship. The disappointing 3-3 finish meant that the Crimson would finish second in ECAC league play. But Harvard quickly rebounded the following afternoon with a 3-1 win over the Bears (4-20-5, 3-16-3) to take home the Ancient Eight title.

HARVARD 3, BROWN 1

Even though the ECAC title had eluded the team, the Crimson came out firing in its second contest of the weekend hoping to take home the Ivy League championship.

“We’ve been harping on it all year that we need to play a full 60 minutes of hockey,” sophomore forward Miye D’Oench said. “It’s not enough to just come out flying or finish strong, but you have to play the whole game uniformly well. Coming off the Yale tie, we wanted to play a full 60 minutes against Brown, and I think we came pretty close.”

A quick goal by D’Oench just two minutes into the game gave Harvard a 1-0 lead. The Crimson built on that momentum with back-to-back goals in the span of thirty seconds by senior Elizabeth Parker in the second frame to give Harvard a comfortable cushion heading into the third.

Freshman goaltender Brianna Laing, who has split time between the pipes this season with sophomore goalie Emerance Maschmeyer, recorded 30 saves in the contest.

The win, along with a loss by Cornell that afternoon, meant that the Crimson would take home its second-straight Ancient Eight title.

“We get to put a year up on that [Ivy League Championship] banner,” D’Oench said. “A lot of teams don’t get to do that, so that’s pretty special.”

HARVARD 3, YALE 3

A quick goal by Parker just four minutes into the contest put the Crimson up against the Bulldogs, but Harvard saw its advantage vanish by the end of the period. Two power play goals by Yale gave the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead after the first frame.

“We had a very, very fast start,” D’Oench said. “I thought we were all over them for the first five or ten minutes. Unfortunately, we got two penalties that cost us. They were able to pop in a few quick goals, and that kind of changed the flow of the game.”

A tripping penalty on freshman defender Briana Mastel gave the Bulldogs the man advantage, and Yale needed only five seconds to capitalize on the opportunity. The Bulldogs won the ensuing faceoff and freshman defender Taylor Marchin drove the puck straight into the net to tie up the game.

With less than two minutes left in the first period, Yale again found itself with a power play opportunity. Sophomore goalie Emerance Maschmeyer put up four straight saves to kill most of the penalty, but forward Jackie Raines netted one with less than 30 seconds to go in the power play to put the Bulldogs up, 2-1.

“After the first period was a great time to regroup as a team, go back to the locker room, talk about what we need to work on better, and come out in the second period and execute that,” senior Elizabeth Parker said. “In the second and third periods, we definitely improved our play and overcame some adversity that we had faced.”

The Crimson gave up another goal five minutes into the second frame, leaving the team in a 3-1 deficit. But D’Oench closed the gap with a goal of her own 11 minutes into the period off an assist from classmate Jessica Harvey and junior Sarah Edney.

Harvard outshot Yale, 12-6, on the period but could not find the equalizer. Entering the third period just a goal back, the Crimson was finally able to tie it up with 1:16 left to play in regulation when freshman forward Sydney Daniels slipped one by goaltender Jaimie Leonoff off an assist from Hillary Crowe.

Harvard looked desperately for a goal in overtime but could not capitalize, and the game ended in a tie. Unfortunately, the Crimson needed a win to claim the ECAC regular season conference championship and the No. 1 seed in the postseason tournament.

“Anytime you score with less than two minutes left in a game to tie it up, you’re pretty happy about that,” D’Oench said. “[But] to be honest, it was a real stinger, because it meant that we didn’t win the regular season for ECAC. That’s pretty big, not only for pride, but also the No. 1 seed gets to host the playoffs. I’m very proud of us for climbing out of that hole, but at the same time, we needed the win. That didn’t feel too good.”

—Staff writer Brenna  R. Nelsen can be reached at brenna.nelsen@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @CrimsonBRN.