Women's Hockey Rides 13 Goals to Two Weekend Wins

With just four ECAC games left in the season and a tight race for first in the league, the No. 4/4 Harvard women’s ice hockey team jumped to the top of the standings with two sweeping wins at home. The Crimson (18-4-2, 14-3-1 ECAC) netted 13 goals over the weekend and allowed just two, as Yale (10-13-1, 7-10-0) and Brown (5-20-0, 2-16-0) fell at the Bright-Landry Hockey Center on Friday and Saturday, respectively.

As the team heads towards its first Beanpot title game since 2011—a rematch with No. 1/1 Boston College on Tuesday night—and the end of the regular season, Harvard coach Katey Stone is keeping a level head.

“[We’re taking every game] one at a time,” Stone said. “Absolutely one at a time.”

HARVARD 7, BROWN 1

For the third game in a row, the home crowd on hand watched classic Crimson hockey, as fast skating and a multitude of aggressive line combinations kept the Bears from hitting any sort of offensive or defensive stride, leading to a huge margin of victory for Harvard.

Junior forward Mary Parker scored the first hat trick of her college career in the win. Two minutes into the contest, sophomore defenseman Natasha Rachlin fired an attempt at Brown goaltender Julianne Landry, which bounced off Landry’s pads and towards Parker, who snuck it into the net.

Her second and third goals came rapidly within 36 seconds of one another, as the Crimson accumulated offensive steam in the final minutes of the second period to score three times in just over a minute and a half.

“A big focus of ours over the last couple of weeks has been playing a full 60 minutes, so we’ve been really focusing to continue that and not [let] up as the game goes on,” Parker said.

The flurry of goals came after Harvard had to stave off two minutes of shorthanded five-on-four play and three minutes of five-on-three play.

“I was happy with how we killed it,” Stone said. “I like how our kids handled that…and then we turned around and made them pay."

First, freshman forward Haley Mullins was called for checking, a major penalty of five minutes. Nearly three minutes into the Bears’ extended power play, sophomore forward Sydney Daniels entered the box for tripping, and the Crimson had to contend with two fewer skaters on the ice. Brown fired off six attempts—nearly half of its game total for shots (14)—but was unable to score. In contrast, Harvard had 46 shots on goal over the three periods, its highest mark all season.

“I think our speed was tough for them to handle,” Parker said. “We’re a pretty fast team so we were taking it to them all over the ice."

HARVARD 6, YALE 1

To open the weekend, senior forward Lyndsey Fry netted a hat trick that comprised half of the Crimson’s scores as Harvard beat Yale, 6-1, on Friday night. Fry first struck with an unassisted goal in the final minutes of the opening frame.

In the second period, Fry drilled back to back goals, the first of which was assisted by Daniels and senior top-pair defenseman Sarah Edney. The second came while the Crimson was on the power play, assisted by seniors Marissa Gedman and Josephine Pucci. Fry’s third score marked the 50th of the Olympic silver medalist’s Harvard career.

Junior forward Miye D’Oench scored twice, while Edney added a goal of her own. The Crimson went 2-for-4 on power plays, also carrying an edge in shots on goal, 35-21.

In goal, Brianna Laing made her eighth start of the season and played all 60 minutes in goal for her seventh win this year.

On the other end of the ice, Bulldog goalie Jaimie Leonoff, who once made 131 saves over a weekend of tournament play against Harvard last season, went just 17-for-22 in her time between the posts over less than two periods of play.

—Staff writer Cordelia F. Mendez can be reached at cordelia.mendez@thecrimson.com.