The team will do their best to regain their luster in the eyes of fans starting with alumni. On Sunday, Harvard celebrates 25 years of Women’s Hockey Sunday by inviting hockey alums to festivities, including an alumni hockey game, prior to the main event.
“Anything that can generate momentum and attention toward what we’re trying to do is a good thing,” Stone says. “You really have to gain momentum around here in order to gain support.”
The hope is that with a large alumni base to fill the crowd with Harvard supporters, more students will get into the games and turn out more often to see them.
“When you generate a big crowd, its fun, and if everyone enjoys the setting, you’re more likely to come back,” Ruggiero says.
If there’s one thing the team needs to build in order to attract the fans, it’s the right atmosphere.
“I think a lot of the times the fans are what make it intense,” McAuliffe says. “I think the onus is on us to rally some people to the games.”
Stone agrees, but adds that the crowd is not the team’s first priority.
“I try to have the players bring their buddies, but I also don’t want them spending too much time cheerleading and not enough time focusing on the game,” Stone says.
The Crimson will need to focus and not allow their past to haunt them. Dartmouth has long proved a thorn in Harvard’s side. The Big Green has eliminated the Crimson from the ECAC tournament in each of the last four years.
USCHO.com recently ranked the 2000 ECAC semifinal between Harvard and Dartmouth as the best Harvard-Dartmouth game of the past six years. Dartmouth’s victory knocked the Crimson out of contention for the national championship one year after winning it.
“Dartmouth-Harvard, as long as I’ve been here, has been the most intense rivalry,” Ruggiero notes.
Harvard hopes that the teams’ past performances will give the fans all the more incentive to turn out.
“Just like our players don’t really thrive on beating people 10-1, 10-0, fans don’t either,” Stone adds. “Fans want to see those tight 2-1 games. They have the opportunity to see a very close battle on Sunday.”
In the midst of reading period, students could seek refuge for two to three hours watching their classmates turn a rink of ice into a hotbed of excitement. Perhaps Ruggiero offers just the insight reluctant fans not accustomed to a women’s hockey game might be seeking.
“There’s definitely going to be some hitting and physical play,” Ruggiero says. “If that’s what fans are looking for, they’re going to get it.”
—Staff writer John R. Hein can be reached at hein@fas.harvard.edu.