The Harvard women’s hockey team opened its Thanksgiving weekend with a much-needed 4-2 victory over No. 3 Brown on Saturday. After the game, Harvard Coach Katey Stone said that it was important for the Crimson to prove that it was a two-game-in-a-weekend team with a strong showing against Providence the next day.

But with yesterday’s 6-0 loss to the Friars, Harvard will have to wait a few more weekends for another chance to prove itself.

“The team you saw today wasn’t the team that was here yesterday,” said junior captain Jamie Hagerman following the defeat. “I wish we could have brought that [team] today to show them that that wasn’t Harvard hockey, that this was a little bit of a deviant from what we usually play. We didn’t bring the same intensity and we weren’t as determined as we could have been.”

Harvard’s next game is an exhibition at Toronto on Saturday. The Crimson’s next official game is Sunday afternoon at No. 8 Niagara.

Purple Eagle Coach Margot Page, whose team split two games at Northeastern this weekend, didn’t know what to make of the recent Crimson results.

“You don’t know what kind of a team you’re going to have with Harvard,” Page said. “But they’ve got some high-end players that can put the puck in the net, so it’s going to be a real treat trying to work on the defensive zone again.”

Providence 6, Harvard 0

The Friars began its offensive drive in the opening minutes, capitalizing on a Harvard penalty to score at 3:45 of the first period. Junior Melanie Ruzzi passed to captain Kim Mathias, whose shot was blocked by sophomore goaltender Jessica Ruddock. Freshman Carrie Holldorf picked up the rebound and sent the ball past Ruddock for the first of her two goals in the game.

“We didn’t play good defense in front of our net at all,” Stone said. “They were wide open waiting for a loose puck all the time. It’s just one of those days.”

Providence continued its dominance, keeping the puck in the Harvard defensive zone. Sophomores Meredith Roth and Sarah Youlen added goals in the first, sending the Friars into the intermission with a 3-0 lead.

“They’re strong,” Stone said. “They run some good screens, a lot of interference. We just didn’t put the pucks in the right spots.”

Harvard’s game perked up in the second period, when the Crimson put eight shots on net. The Crimson mustedred only two shots in the other periods. But despite a more balanced game, the Friars continued to dance in the Crimson zone, blocking Harvard’s attempts to clear the puck.

Senior Jackie Tamsin scored her first goal of the season at 14:03 to give Providence a 4-0 advantage.

“Everything starts from the defensive zone,” Hagerman said. “So if we get frustrated and we can’t get the puck out of the defensive zone, that’s going to tire us out and that’s going to use up the energy and the legs that we need in order to generate offense.”

Providence tallied two more goals in the third period from junior assistant captain Jenn Butsch and Holldorf for a final score of 6-0. The Crimson finished with 12 shots on goal while the Friars had 34, leaving Ruddock with 28 saves for the day.