Women's Hockey Mounts Comeback Against BU

BOSTON — It was the second time in as many weeks that the Harvard women’s hockey team travelled across the river to face off against a crosstown rival in the Beanpot Tuesday night.

The Crimson (14-9-2, 10-6-2 ECAC) met up with Boston University (17-11-2, 14-4-2 Hockey East) across the river for the tournament’s consolation game. Harvard found itself in the loser’s bracket of the tournament after falling 8-0 in the opening round to Boston College, the team that would eventually go on to win the tournament.

Despite the beating in the first round, the Crimson returned to Walter Brown Arena with its offense at full steam, putting five goals past the host team en route to a 5-3 victory Tuesday night.

The upperclassmen shone brightly on the ice for Harvard, with all five goals coming from juniors and seniors. Senior captain Miye D’Oench and junior forward Sydney Daniels each had two goals on the night while junior defender Briana Mastel tallied one of her own.

D’Oench and Daniels are currently tied for the top goal scorers on the team, each with 11 on the season.

“What I think about our team that makes us so great is that it could be anyone out there scoring goals,” Daniels said. “If you look at the game sheets there is so much diversity and I’m just lucky that I’m getting them but honestly it could be anyone.”

The beginning of the game looked eerily similar to the Crimson’s first round Beanpot showing, during which BC scored five goals in the opening period, including two in the opening six minutes of the game. The Terriers’ offense was almost able to mirror Harvard’s previous opponent, finding the back of the net twice in a matter of five minutes and adding a third before the end of the period.

The first goal came only a minute and 14 seconds into the game when junior forward Maddie Elia beat out senior keeper Emerance Maschmeyer and found the back of the net.

Elia came back less than four minutes later to add to BU’s lead, having help from Rebecca Leslie and Rebecca Russo.

“The game had a very different feel in it from the start even if we were down 3-1 early,” Harvard head coach Katey Stone said. “We felt like we were in it the entire time and from my perspective we played Harvard hockey and kept coming at them the entire time.”

It was not until the third period that the Crimson’s offense came to life. After coming up short with only one goal in the first 54 minutes of hockey, Harvard came up with three in the final seven minutes of play.

The offensive push was spearheaded by Daniels, who had two of the team’s three third period goals. From close range Daniels was able to poke the puck past Terrier goalie Victoria Hanson inside of the seven-minute mark, tying the game at three.

Daniels’ stick came through for the go ahead and ultimate game-winning goal under five minutes later when she fielded a pass sophomore Karly Heffernan and shot the puck past Hanson for the go-ahead tally.

“I think our kids were hungry and they just kept coming at them,” Stone said. “We were able to stave off their pressure and work our way up the ice and I feel like they [BU] fought it in their defensive end and we fought back. Our forecheck was great.”

One aspect of the Crimson’s game that did not shine throughout the night was its power play on both sides of the puck. Throughout the contest Harvard was called for four penalties, resulting in eight minutes of power play for the Terriers. In one of those man-advantage situations BU was able to capitalize on the opportunity and net a goal.

The Crimson was also unable to capitalize on its opponent’s mistakes. Having four power play opportunities itself during the course of the night, Harvard squandered all of them.

Despite the lack of productivity during power plays, the attitude of the team now on a two-game win streak is that of hopefulness, having found a new chemistry between the lines.

“I honestly think we are trying to keep it very light and stick to the things we know,” Daniels said. “It comes down to having fun and playing hockey at the end of the day.”

—Staff writer Ariel Smolik-Valles can be reached at ariel.smolik-valles@thecrimson.com