Women's Hockey Battles to Stalemate with Brown

Two goals from junior forward Sydney Daniels sent the Harvard women’s hockey team (13-9-2, 9-6-2 ECAC) to a 3-3 stalemate against ECAC bottom feeder Brown (3-18-3, 1-13-3).

Just over four minutes into the final frame, Daniels fired the Crimson into the lead with a shot from just outside the crease after rookie Audrey Warner’s shot ricocheted to Daniels for the junior’s eleventh goal of the season.

A Harvard victory wasn’t meant to be, however, as Brown forward Erin Conway’s power play goal gave the Bears a share of the spoils. After a shot by sophomore Sam Donovan on the man-advantage, the puck bounced off the crossbar and was poked home by Conway for the final scoreline.

While both teams pressured and created scoring opportunities in the extra frame, neither side was able to find the mesh before the final buzzer sounded.

The draw was the Crimson’s first since a 0-0 contest versus then-No. 4/4 Clarkson. Despite having a large shot advantage with 54 shots on goal––a season high––compared to just 30 for Brown, Harvard failed to claim the win. Junior netminder Brianna Laing made 27 saves on the night.

“We had a really good effort tonight.” Daniels said. “We didn’t get the bounces we wanted and that’s always difficult in a big Ivy League game.”

Four days after being held to just 12 shots against top-ranked Boston College in the Beanpot semifinals, the Crimson looked to take advantage of a porous Brown defense allowing an average of 3.71 goals per game––worst in the ECAC––to get back on track.

Harvard coach Katey Stone made a couple of changes to the first-line, placing sophomore Karly Heffernan on the front line for classmate Lexie Laing while replacing co-captain Emerance Maschmeyer with Laing between the sticks.

“[Brianna] played well on Tuesday night so we wanted to play her tonight and she did well.” Stone said. “We’re trying to find a little bit more offense and we’ve got a lot of moving parts, we’ve had kids moving in and out of the lineup so we’re going to keep working on this until we figure it out.”

After a scoreless first period that saw Harvard tally 18 shots on goal compared to a mere four from Brown, it was the Bears who found themselves on the scoreboard first early in the second stanza.

Following a faceoff in the Crimson defensive zone, Brown captain Kelly Micholson found the back of the net at the 3:13 mark, as her shot from just outside the crease made its way past Laing.

Harvard failed to take advantage of the opportunities handed to it in the following minutes, as Brown killed off a penalty despite being pressured by a determined Crimson offense. Harvard struggled to capitalize on the man advantage all night, failing to score on four penalty opportunities against the Bears.

The Crimson has failed to score on its last 25 power plays, with its last goal on the penalty occurring courtesy of freshman Grace Zarzecki against Cornell on Jan. 8.

“Our five need to work harder than their four,” Stone said. “We’ve got to possess the puck, we throw the puck around a lot and we don’t look sometimes…. Power plays are all about creating 2-on-1’s and right now it’s often very much a 1-on-1 situation.”

Despite failing to score during the man-advantage, Harvard evened up the score at the 9:13 mark thanks to sophomore Dani Krzyszczyk. After recovering possession in the neutral zone as Brown attempted to mount an attack, the forward exchanged a series of short passes with Zarzecki during a 2-on-1 before sending a backhand past Elvin.

Daniels put the Crimson up just over five minutes later with a rocket from the right faceoff circle. After a series of Harvard shots at goal, the puck ricocheted to the Southwick, Mass. native, who fired it home for the Crimson’s second tally of the night.

Though Daniel has been a star for the Crimson lately––with four goals in the team’s last two conference matchups––the junior insists a lot of the credit for her success falls to her teammates.

“I’m nothing without my team,” Daniels said. “I can’t do anything without them…. I’m lucky that it is me getting the goals but it could be anyone. Hopefully we get more of those coming up.”

The Bears, however, refused to back down. With just under two minutes left, rookie blueline Leah Olson fired a shot from the left faceoff circle that bounced off the pads of Laing. Classmate Cara Najjar was there to collect the puck and poke it into the mesh.

After Daniels recovered the lead for Harvard, the Brown offense sprung to life, particularly after a tripping penalty by sophomore Karly Heffernan during which co-captain Michelle Picard was forced into a diving save to prevent a Brown player from tucking in a loose rebound.

The Bears’ determination paid off, as Conway tallied her fourth goal of the season, destining the game to overtime.

––Staff writer Julio Fierro can be reached at julio.fierro@thecrimson.com.