Women's Hockey Soars Past No. 5 Quinnipiac, Falls to Princeton

In a pivotal weekend for the ECAC standings, the No. 4/4 Harvard women’s ice hockey team (15-4-2, 12-2-1 ECAC) split its decisions against No. 5/5 Quinnipiac (20-4-3, 11-2-2) and Princeton (11-10-2, 9-6-1), keeping the team second in the conference with six regular season games left on the schedule.

PRINCETON 1, HARVARD 0

Despite a third period rally from the Crimson, a first period goal by the Tigers was all Princeton’s offense would need to seal the deal against a stingy Harvard defense.

The only tally of the afternoon came off the stick of Tiger forward Molly Contini at the 8:20 mark of the opening period. Taking advantage of a steal by Princeton sophomore Hilary Lloyd, the Tigers shoveled the puck to sophomore defenseman Kelsey Koelzer and eventually on to Contini, who lifted the puck past Crimson goaltender Brianna Laing for her 14^th goal of the season.

“Every game in this conference matters, and it was definitely a disappointing loss for us, but it just goes to prove that anyone can beat anyone in this league,” freshman forward Dani Krzyszczyk said.“We all know what we are capable of which makes the loss a little more disappointing.”

For the rest of the night, the rink was silent on both ends. Over the first two periods, Harvard tallied just  15 shots on the Princeton goal, with sophomore forward Sydney Daniels and senior defenseman Josephine Pucci leading the Crimson with three apiece.

But in the third period, Harvard made its last push to tie the game, recording 17 shots in the final 20 minutes, compared to Princeton’s five. Tiger goaltender Kimberly Newell snuffed the Crimson’s last effort at salvaging the game, blocking senior forward Kalley Armstrong’s shot with seconds left in the contest.

With the loss, the Crimson fell back into second place in the ECAC, a point behind Quinnipiac in the conference standings.

“Being at the top of the standings means that every team we play is going to give us their best,” senior forward Lyndsey Fry said. “We just need to continue to give them our best. But we had our opportunities tonight. We just need to put them away.”

HARVARD 2, QUINNIPIAC 1

In a matchup between the top two teams in the ECAC, the regularly scheduled 60 minutes of play were not enough to determine the superiority of either the Crimson or the Bobcats. That question was not answered until 3:26 into the overtime period.

The winning goal for Harvard came off the stick of Daniels following a pass series by Fry and classmate Sarah Edney as they worked their way up the ice. Handling the puck in Quinnipiac territory, Edney fired a pass to Daniels, who redirected the puck into the back of the net, past Bobcat goaltender Chelsea Laden. The goal was Daniels’ 12th of the season.

“It was an amazing feeling when the puck went in,” Krzyszczyk said. “Our entire team was so excited, we jumped off the bench and came into the dressing room screaming. It was definitely a huge game, and we knew what was on the line, so it was great to see us come back and get the win.”

For the first 60 minutes of play, the two teams were neck and neck. The first tally of the contest did not come until 2:36 into the second period, as Bobcat forward Nicole Kosta put a backhanded shot beyond the reach of Crimson goalie Emerance Maschmeyer.  Harvard answered later in the period with a goal coming from the stick of Armstrong after Daniels fed a pass to the senior deep in Quinnipiac territory.

The Bobcats outshot the Crimson in each of the three regulation periods, logging a total of 27 attempts, compared to Harvard’s 18. It was not until the overtime period that the Crimson gained an edge in shots, recording three against Quinnipiac’s lone attempt.

In goal for the Crimson, Maschmeyer continued her winning ways, improving her record to 8-3-2 with a overall save percentage of .929. The junior finished the contest with 26 saves.

—Staff writer Ariel Smolik-Valles can be reached at asmolikvalles@college.harvard.edu.