Harvard was tested in this season-opener, but Stone was pleased by the competitiveness her team encountered.
“They made it tough on us,” Stone said. “It was a good first game for us to have.”
HARVARD 8, CORNELL 2
In a game delayed an hour due to a late-arriving referee crew, the Crimson unleashed a torrent of third-period goals to turn a tight contest into a laugher.
After Cornell tied the game at two apiece with 2:35 left in the first period, Harvard strung together six unanswered goals that spoke to a combination of dazzling skill and a weary, inept Big Red back line.
The Crimson jumped out to an early 2-0 lead on an unassisted Ashley Banfield goal that snuck through the wickets of Cornell netminder Beth Baronick and a Corriero one-timer set up by junior tri-captain Julie Chu. Corriero finished with two goals and an assist for the night.
But the Big Red mounted early resistance, managing to respond to the Harvard assault with two goals of its own. Both scores came on loose pucks in front of the net—rebounds that the Crimson defense failed to clear from the crease.
“We let them get too many swats at the puck,” Correiro said. “We can’t let a team get that many rebounds and have that many chances to put the puck away.”
Harvard regained the lead just before the intermission on an amazing set of moves by Vaillancourt. She added her second goal of the night and third of the young season in the second period to advance the Crimson lead to 4-2.
From that point on, Harvard added mercilessly to its lead, bettering its power-play efficiency of the night before with three conversions in the prolific third period.
Harvard’s production was concentrated on the sticks of a core group of skaters. Besides Vaillancourt, Banfield had a goal and two assists, Skinner added three assists and sophomore Liza Solley chipped in with two late goals.
“That’s good,” Stone said. “That’s what you want. We want some balance on our lines and explosiveness throughout.”
Stone deployed her freshmen with greater frequency on Saturday partly to get them playing time to prepare for when Vaillancourt and Chu depart this week for the Four Nations Cup and partly to promote the depth that has been a hallmark of Harvard teams in the past.
“Towards the end of the game, we started to shuffle things around a little bit to prepare ourselves for next week with those guys gone,” Stone said.
Despite the absences, Harvard looks to continue its winning ways in a home meeting against Providence at 7 p.m. on Wednesday night.