Women’s Hockey Falls to Brown and Yale in Final Road Outing

This past weekend, the Harvard women’s hockey team (2-22-2, 1-18-1 ECAC) dropped contests against Brown (14-10-3, 9-8-3 ECAC) and Yale (15-10-2, 10-9-1 ECAC) during its last road trip of the regular season.

Harvard 1, Brown 3

On Friday, the team took on the Brown Bears in Providence. The competition was fierce in the first period of play. Both the Bears and the Crimson were hustling, maintaining relatively equal possession of the puck and creating scoring opportunities. Harvard’s freshman goalie, Ainsley Tuffy, put on an impressive performance in net and during the first twenty minutes on the ice, and neither team was able to score.

During the second period, the level of intensity rose. Harvard, hungry for a win, and Brown, nervous about being upset by the Crimson, both increased their level of physicality. The Bears dominated possession, forcing Harvard to scramble for blocks within its defensive zone. The Brown’s offensive unit whipped the puck around the ice, creating a lane for Bears freshman defender Victoria Damiani to rip a shot from the blue line. The puck flew past Tuffy and into the top corner of the net.

At the end of the period, the Bears had a 1-0 advantage.

Despite being outshot 8-25 entering the final period, Harvard’s vigor did not relent. Twenty-six seconds into the period, Ella Lucia, a freshman from Bloomfield Hills, Mich. was called for checking. The Crimson put up a dominant defensive effort, preventing Brown from increasing its lead during the woman-up advantage. Shortly after the penalty kill, during a power-play opportunity of its own, Harvard secured the equalizer. Senior Ellie Bayard hammered the puck home, lighting the lamp for the Crimson and evening the scoreboard.

With two minutes remaining in the game, Brown struck again. Laura Bellamy, Harvard’s Head Coach, was now forced to make quick decisions. Bellamy chose to pull Tuffy, who tallied a staggering 44 saves. Although the Crimson pushed to score again, the Bears snagged possession of the puck and secured the win, scoring another goal on the empty net. The final score was 3-1 in favor of the home team.

Harvard 0, Yale 3

After beating Yale 5-1 in November, the Crimson strove for another win on Saturday, as it traveled down to Connecticut to take on the Bulldogs in a notorious rivalry game. The fans in New Haven were particularly boisterous, as they were celebrating Yale’s senior day game.

The game was locked at a standstill for the first and second periods, as the two historic teams battled it out on the ice. The Crimson had two penalties during the first 20 minutes but prevented any of Yale’s shots from slipping into the net. In the second period, the Bulldogs were called with two penalties of their own, though Harvard was also unable to notch the go-ahead goal during the advantages.

Neither team lit the lamp until the third period. Yale’s captain Anna Bargman shot the puck past the Crimson’s goalkeeper Emily Davidson. Davidson, a junior from Ottawa, Ontario, tallied 29 saves in net and Harvard’s defense notched an impressive 28 blocks during the contest. However, when Bayard got penalized for boarding, the Bulldogs were able to score again. Five minutes later, Bargman recorded her second goal of the night, and Yale suddenly boasted a 3-0 lead.

Despite multiple attempts to mount a comeback, the Crimson was unable to tally a point of its own. As the final buzzer rang, the scoreboard read 3-0 Yale.

Now, as Harvard heads into its final weekend of regular season play, the team will look to upset two top-ranked teams, No. 10 Clarkson and No. 7 St. Lawrence at home. The contests will be tough for the Crimson.

At points, the Harvard team has proved itself as a worthy opponent this year. Backed by two tenacious goaltenders, the Crimson has a strong defensive squad. It also has players who consistently prove themselves to be goal-scoring threats on the ice, particularly senior Gabi Davidson-Adams and Lucia, who respectively have 10 and 8 offensive points on the season.

Still, the Crimson has only notched two wins early in the season — proving mostly unable to secure victories in tightly competitive games. Harvard will strive to turn the season around and create some winning momentum as the team heads into post-season play.

—Staff writer Isabel Smail can be reached at isabel.smail@thecrimson.com.