Women's Hockey Advances to Beanpot Final After Defeating BU

In the 37th showing of the Beanpot, the No. 4/4 Harvard women’s hockey team hosted No. 6/6 Boston University on Tuesday night at Bright-Landry Hockey Center to battle for bragging rights in the first round of the crosstown classic.

After failing to score against Princeton the last time the team took the ice, the Crimson (16-4-2, 12-3-1 ECAC) came out with a strong offensive front against the Terriers (17-7-2, 12-4-0 Hockey East), never trailing in the game en route to a 9-2 win. The win tied the highest number of goals scored by Harvard in the past seven seasons. Over the course of the game the team saw tallies come from the sticks of eight different players, a season high.

The Crimson set the pace of the faceoff early; scoring its first goal with only 34 seconds elapsed on the game clock. The score came from the stick of sophomore forward Sydney Daniels who was assisted by senior forwards Lyndsey Fry and Kalley Armstrong.

Fry then recorded a score of her own at the 13:40 mark of the opening period. Breaking away from the pack off a steal by Daniels, Fry dribbled the puck and was able to get her shot past the BU goaltender.

“Obviously it was really a fun night for our team and I was impressed by how we started and finished,” Harvard coach Katey Stone said. “We had talked about staying in the moment and playing every shift like it’s your last and I think our kids really bought into that right off the bat tonight.”

Harvard did not let up on its scoring effort in the second period, recording six goals in the next 20 minutes of play.

No more than a minute after junior forward Mary Parker scored the Crimson’s third goal, Harvard struck again, this time from senior forward Hillary Crowe, who muscled the puck past the goal line off assists from junior Miye D’Oench and senior Sami Reber. Crowe ended the night with two goals and an assist.

“I thought every line did a good job of shooting through the screen,” Crowe said. “Personally I have a tendency to wait for the pass and today on my first goal I saw an opening to shoot through the screen and found the back of the net. I know that’s been a goal of mine personally and I’ve practiced it a lot.”

BU attempted to tighten the gap at with a goal midway through the second frame, but Harvard answered the challenge almost immediately when freshman Dani Krzyszczyk recorded her first goal of the season off an assist by classmate Haley Mullins. Junior forward Jessica Harvey added her first goal of the season to the effort as well just two minutes later, making the score 7-1.

Terrier sophomore goalie Victoria Hanson was responsible for all seven of the Crimson’s goals in the first two periods before freshman Erin O’Neil took over between the posts to finish out the final 20 minutes of ice time.

The switch didn’t seem to help the defensive effort for long, as the puck crossed the goal line once more when Mullins shoveled a pass to Harvey who was waiting in front of the goal to convert the pass into a point.

Harvard also replaced starting goalie junior Emerance Maschmeyer with sophomore Brianna Laing to finish out the third period. BU freshman forward Victoria Bach was able to sneak a goal by Laing in the closing minutes of the game, putting the cap on all scoring for the night. Combined, the two goalies were able to make 12 saves.

With the win, the Crimson advance to the championship game of the Beanpot for the first time since the 2010-2011 season.

“To be going into the Beanpot final is an honor,” Daniels said. “We are just going to play our hearts out and we’re very excited to have the chance to win it all.”

—Staff writer Ariel Smolik-Valles can be reached at asmolikvalles@college.harvard.edu.