All afternoon, every transition chance the Saints mustered ran straight into one or another of the Crimson’s defenders. St. Lawrence’s first line of Gina Kingsbury, Chelsea Grills and Rebecca Russell was the only group that managed to the put together a string of runs on Harvard’s net. But each time they came speeding down the ice, either one of the Crimson defenders stick checked the puck away from them, or sophomore Ali Boe gobbled up the shot.
“Our forecheck, 2-3—we have to be decisive on it and no one let up,” Ruggiero said. “We were moving our feet the whole game, playing as a team, and being defensively rock solid—we almost overcompensated for the fact that we lost one of our best defensemen.”
“From being undisciplined with our systems to being undisciplined and taking some really bad penalties—penalties are one thing I guess, but the systems—that’s a real frustrating aspect of our game today,” Flanagan said. “We weren’t there mentally. Our systems have gotten us to this point. We have some players who just got away from doing what got us here. “
Before St. Lawrence could even mount a real challenge to Harvard, the game was out of reach.
After the first two lines had applied the heat, the Crimson’s depth shown through as the third and fourth line fanned the flames.
Four minutes into the second period, junior Kat Sweet took the puck up the right side of the ice and found sophomore Carrie Schroyer waiting for the perfect pass next to the net on the opposite side. Schroyer one-timed the puck into the net—extending the lead to 3-0 and sending the number Harvard fans, family and band members into a frenzy.
A period later, the fourth line stepped up into the spotlight and received the praise of the crowd. With 11 minutes left in the game, senior Mina Pell took the puck off of a face-off and—mirroring a successful move by sophomore Julie Chu earlier in the period—skated through the Saints’ defense on the right and shot the puck past Barrie for her first goal of the season.
Following the play, sophomore Jennifer Raimondi made sure to go find the referee and save the puck for her teammate.
“Today the bounces did go our way,” Chu said. “We played really hard and we earned those bounces. But they also went our way. Sometimes you play an awesome hockey game, you play out of your mind, and you lose.”
Harvard and St. Lawrence will play for the fourth time this year Friday at 5 p.m. in the NCAA Frozen Four. Harvard has taken all three games thus far and has been able to handle the Saints, leaving St. Lawrence in search of an answer.
—Staff writer Gabriel M. Velez can be reached at gmvelez@fas.harvard.edu.