The ice world was thrown into disorder Saturday night. Northeastern won a Beanpot (3-1 over B.C.), and a Harvard hockey team went winless in the tourney for the second time in less than six weeks.
And had the lad of Stratford ventured to Elizabethan Boston Arena, he would have noticed an "untimely ripped" women's hockey, which strung Pyrrhic victories together, but, zounds, came up empty-handed.
"It's frustrating," said coach Joe Bertagna after his charges had lost 4-1 to Boston University in Saturday night's consolation game. "We played well enough both nights to get something out of this, but I guess somebody has to finish fourth," he added.
Rising Above
And if it had not been for the superlative performance of B.U. forward Nancy Kilik, that "somebody" would have been the Terriers. Kilik scored all four B.U. goals, two of them shorthanded, and seemed the only player who could rise above, let alone equal, the strong team effort of the icewomen.
"Kilik generates all their offense. We stopped everyone except her," said Bertagna. The fact that all but one of the Grafton, Mass. sophomore's tallies were unassisted defends this to the point of depression.
Broken Wood
Kilik's game-winner came with 1:03 left in the first period with teammate Kathy Bettis serving a penalty for playing with a broken stick. B.U. took a 2-0 lead into the locker room at the end of one, though outplayed and outshot (5-3) by Harvard.
Well aware of their 6-5 loss in overtime last month to the Terriers, the Crimson had thoughts of turning the tables when Lauren Norton's goal at 1:41 of the second pulled the icewomen to within one. Norton came around the cage and tried to pool cue the puck by the near post. B.U. goalie Mary-Leslie Ullman had not guarded the pipe tightly enough, and Norton's english skidded the disc in.
The Crimson once again outshot the Terriers, and even killed off a two-man advantage late in the second, but could get no closer. Harvard ran out of steam in the third, managing only two shots on net.
Kilik finished things off with a pair of scores in the final frame. Her first at 1:18 came after Harvard's Tania Huber, Sara Fisher and Julie Starr were pressuring in the B.U. zone. Kilik outraced Starr for a clearing pass at the Harvard blue line and broke in alone on goalie Nelia Worsley. Her high wrister caught the upper left corner.
Worsley had her problems in the cage against Kilik, but her 11 saves in the final period and 17 overall were quite remarkable, considering that the junior netminder has been rowing crew for the past two weeks and only practiced once with her former squad.
Kilik scored the game's final marker at 5:20 on the Crimson's first legitimate blunder of the contest. With the icewomen sporting a man advantage, Kilik stole a clearing pass intended for Huber in the Harvard zone and immediately launched one goalward, a direct hit.
So the women's hockey team ended an encouraging first varsity season in discouraging fashion, and more glumly, in the Boston Arena, where legend has it they ask you to keep cigars lit so they can collect fire insurance.
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