Before the Harvard women’s hockey team even stepped on the ice against St. Lawrence on Friday in Canton, N.Y., it had to get there the day before.

A typical bus ride from Boston to St. Lawrence takes under seven hours, but this trip took over nine. Among the confounding difficulties, the bus diverted from the major highway, lost its way and hit a deer.

Sophomore Nicole Corriero said she was sleeping soundly when all of a sudden she heard the bus slam on its breaks. She then heard a thump, looked outside her window and saw a deer squirming in the snow as the bus went by.

According to junior Lauren McAuliffe, the bus stopped only briefly and the state police were called to handle the situation.

The circuitous route to Canton wasn’t all bad. The bus went through Lake Placid along the way, where freshman Julie Chu and captain Angela Ruggiero spent the better part of two years training with the U.S. national team.

“On the drive up here I got a little nostalgic going by Lake Placid and the Saranac Lake area,” Chu said to the Watertown Daily Times on Saturday.

But for the most part, the bus ride was frustrating. Corriero said she felt she still had her bus legs the next day.

“It was a really long, stressful bus ride there, and by the end we were all at our wit’s end,” Corriero said. “We just wanted to get off the bus.”

At the very least, the team was thankful it arrived in Canton safely.

“Everything ended up turning out okay.” Corriero said, “except for the deer, of course.”

Violence On the Ice

The Crimson can also be grateful the most violent spectacle it witnessed this weekend did not involve its players on the ice. Other top teams these past two weekends have not been as lucky.

The most high-profile injury of the season occurred on Feb. 8 with 10 seconds left in Minnesota’s 2-1 WCHA victory over Ohio State. The Gophers had just cleared the puck behind the Buckeye net on the penalty kill, essentially clinching the victory, when Gopher freshman Krissy Wendell fell victim to an unanticipated hit at center ice from Ohio State defenseman Heather Farrell. Wendell, a U.S. Olympian, had scored the eventual game-winner a minute earlier. There was no penalty called on the play.

A day later it was revealed that Wendell had broken her collarbone and would be out for at least the remainder of the regular season.

Wendell hasn’t spoken to the media since the incident.