Freshman Goalie Stifles Bulldogs

After not managing to get a puck in the net for over six periods of play, the No. 7 Harvard women’s hockey team finally broke through on Yale this Saturday evening.

But the result was far from the opening of the floodgates—the Crimson came out with its second tie of the weekend with a 1-1 final against the Bulldogs at Bright Hockey Center.

“We are playing hard—now we need to play a little smarter,” Harvard coach Katey Stone said. “We are not satisfied, but you take a lot of positives out of a week like this.”

For the second straight game, freshman Brittany Martin got the nod in goal with no back-up as senior Ali Boe remained sidelined with her concussion. Martin’s athletic style paid dividends for Harvard (10-7-4, 7-3-4 ECAC) as she stopped 44 shots en route to the tie.

Martin saved the game a number of times, including during a pivotal 5-on-3 opportunity for Yale (7-10-5, 4-5-4) in the first period. During that stretch, she made three saves, with the Bulldogs’ only real opportunity for a goal being waved off for high sticking.

“I don’t think we need to work on [killing 5-on-3 situations] any more, and hopefully we won’t have to for the rest of the season,” Martin said.

The only slip for Martin came late in the second period when Yale rookie Maggie Westfal got off a powerplay shot. The Crimson goalie never saw it coming, with a perfect screen set up in front of her.

“I was trying to stay down low and cover the low part of net because I couldn’t see anything—especially five-on-three, when they have so much traffic in front of the net,” Martin said.

The Bulldogs’ goal tied the game just fewer than 10 minutes after the Crimson special teams unit started the scoring with a perfectly executed play.

Freshman Sarah Wilson found classmate and linemate Jenny Brine, who shoveled off a quick pass to senior Jennifer Raimondi. Raimondi’s quick one-timer caught Yale’s goalie Sarah Love off-guard and gave Harvard its first goal since the second period of a loss to Dartmouth last Monday.

Love finished the game with 40 saves.

Raimondi’s breakthrough came on the fifth powerplay of the game for the Crimson, giving it a special teams goal for the first time since the end of the break for finals period. For the game, Harvard put seven shots on net during its one-man advantage situations, finishing 1-for-5.

The momentum quickly changed, however, as Harvard got into trouble. It found itself in the penalty box five times during the second period.

“We were very undisciplined in the second period and as a result, got very tired,” Stone said. “We took stupid penalties—we just can’t afford to do that.”

In the third frame and into overtime, however, the Crimson stayed out of the penalty box, while Yale’s pressure became fiercer. The Bulldogs outshot Harvard in the third period and overtime, but Martin’s goaltending and the Crimson defense preserved the tie.

On a key chance for Yale in the extra period, Martin dove across the front of the goal to pounce on a loose puck on the other side of the net. Another near-goal was taken away by head referee Derek Zuckerman because the play had been whistled dead despite the puck still being loose.

“A disallowed goal is something that’s a little frustrating because kids work so hard, and goals aren’t easy to come by,” Yale coach Hilary Witt said, “But the officials have to make their calls. If they lose sight of the puck, there’s not much you can do.”

The goal had appeared to come off the stick of freshman Crysti Howser, who plagued the Crimson defense for the entire game. She finished with 10 shots and a number of times led the offensive charge for the Bulldogs.

But Martin stuffed all 10 and Harvard came away with its second league tie of the weekend.

—Staff writer Gabriel M. Velez can be reached at gmvelez@fas.harvard.edu.