"I think we were all a little nervous at the beginning," noted Crimson Tri-Captain Dinny Starr. The Cantabs not only were skating in front of the largest home crowd of the year (164), but also were hoping to avenge an early-season 8-1 loss to the Huskies.
The second stanza opened just where the last had left off, with the Northeastern offense on a rampage. Duguay and Michelle Surette hit a pair of rebound goals past Kimmel--things just weren't clicking for Harvard.
Even the Crimson's first power play opportunity fell through when Kelly Landry was charged with the first of two tripping penalties, causing her to beat her stick against her helmet in exasperation.
In an attempt to revitalize the team, the fans started to come alive--the pressbox started an impromptu "wave", a cymbal-toting member of the Harvard band showed up, and one rooter pulled out placards saying "Fight Fiercely Harvard."
And that's exactly what the icewomen proceeded to do.
Trailing by six, the Crimson skated onto the ice at the start of the final period with a mission--to score.
Northeastern found itself with two players in the sin bin early on, and before long Harvard found itself with two goals in the bag.
First blueliner Julie Sasner, and then center Liz Ward, knocked in power play goals to bring the score to 6-2.
"For years we've never had the power play--today we got two nice goals on it," said Dooley. "The kids never quit."
Unfortunately for Harvard, neither did Northeastern.
Co-Captain Toney lined two shots past Kimmel, the second a shorthanded goal on a breakaway, to regain the six-goal margin.
"The most annoying thing about Northeastern is that they can drive a goalie wild," said Kimmel. "They don't just shoot on every wild instinct--they wait, they control, and they set it up."
The 8-2 final reflects that Husky expertise, but it can't reflect the Crimson spunk.
"We went out there with a lot of pride," Starr said.
They left with that pride intact. THE NOTEBOOK: In the other first round contest, played at 8:30, Boston College defeated Boston University, 4-0. The goals were B.C.'s first in two years at the Beanpot, as the Eagles were shut out in both rounds of the tournament last year. First period--1, N, Jill Toney (Louise Duguay) 2:30. 2, N, Duguay (Kerrie Cronin) 4:39. 3, N, Pisa (Duguay, Toney) 10:53. 4, N, Tina Cardinale (Cronin, Nina Koyama) 15:51. Penalties--Christine Burns, H (holding) 3:08. Second period--5, N, Duguay (Beth Murphy, Koyama) 3:39. 6, N, Michelle Surette (Sylvia, Murphy) 7:54. Penalties--Kelly Landry, H (tripping) 2:06; Sylvia, N (hooking) 10:18; Landry, H (tripping) 10:54, Jane Kalinski, H (tripping) 15:31. Third period 7, H, Julie Sasner (Dinny Starr) 2:54. 8, H, Liz Ward (Landry) 3:11. 9, N, Toney (Tracy Hill, Sylvia) 10:58. 10, N, Toney (unassisted) 13:06. Penalties--Murphy, N (roughing) 0:30; Cardinale, N (hooking) 1:42; Starr, H (tripping) 4:41; Burns, H (holding) 7:18; Cardinale, N (hooking) 12:54. Saves--H, Tracy Kimmel 38; N, Marie Devine 10.