By GABRIEL M. VELEZ

Crimson Staff Writer

Every team tries to reach its peak by the end of the season and the playoffs when the games matter the most.

The Harvard women’s hockey team really learned the importance of that maturation that season as they overcame historic losses and a four-game losing streak to become the best team in the East by the season’s end.

At the beginning of the year, Crimson coach Katey Stone knew that the team would take time to develop and emphasized that the before pre-Christmas schedule would prove to be one of the roughest that Harvard has seen in years.

After cruising against conference foes Cornell and Colgate, the Crimson ran straight into trouble as it tied Providence 2-2 and then lost for the first time in over 20 years to Yale by a score of 3-2.

As the Bulldogs showed with Sarah Love’s impressive 48 saves for the win, having a consistent force in between the pipes can mean everything for a hockey team.

At the time, Harvard’s goaltending situation was still up in the air as sophomore Emily Vitt and junior Ali Boe traded starts in net.

Perhaps one of the biggest wins of the early season, the Crimson welcomed No. 6 St. Lawrence into Bright on Nov. 19th and then sent them packing with an overwhelming 5-1 defeat.

This win, the biggest of a four-game win streak, created some momentum at the perfect time as the Harvard Shootout approached.

Over Thanksgiving weekend, Harvard’s defense could not keep up to par and gave up 11 goals in two games to WCHA opponents as the Crimson fell to No. 1 Minnesota 5-3 and No. 5 Wisconsin 6-4.

No. 2 Minnesota-Duluth came in town next and kept up the onslaught, running over Harvard 6-3 in the first game.

The Crimson made it close in the second and even seemed on the verge of the upset before Caroline Ouellette scored the game winner in overtime.

The low point of the season came right before the Christmas break as it seemed the tough Western competition had knocked Harvard out of its rhythm. In the final game of 2004, the Crimson fell in a tightly fought contest up in Durham to UNH by a score of 2-1.

Nevertheless, the break for the holidays, New Year’s Day and finals breathed new life into Harvard.

Over this time, the Crimson stepped up its level of conditioning and practice by focusing on building up enough endurance to go a full 60 minutes on the ice at max speed and effort.

The training—along with the experience gained from the first half of the season—paid amazing dividends as Harvard ran over its three opponents during reading period and finished the rest of the season 18-0-2.

At the beginning of that stretch, the Crimson convincingly defeated No. 2 Dartmouth—the most highly ranked oppoenent it defeated all season—Dartmouth 6-3 on the Big Green’s home ice.

Despite all of the success the Crimson had last season, it could not beat the Big Green. In fact, Dartmouth had won every head-to-head matchup dating back to the middle of the 2002-2003 season.

The win in the middle of this season also marked Harvard’s first over a top five opponent on the season, proving that it could play with and beat any team when it played team hockey.

Additionally, shortly after coming back after break, the Crimson captured its 11th Beanpot—and seventh straight—by defeating Boston College 6-1.

Harvard also eked out a 4-3 win over Dartmouth at home a few weeks later and fought a peaking St. Lawrence team to a 4-4 tie in a pivotal conference game.

But Harvard really proved it was the best team in the East in the ECAC playoffs as it edged Yale 2-1 in overtime and then clamped down and ran over the Big Green—who had itself taken down the Saints in the other semifinal—by a score of 4-1 to win the conference tourney.

In the opening round of the inaugural Frozen Eight NCAA championship tournament, the Crimson came in with high hopes and ended up barely advancing to the semifinal round.

Visiting Mercyhurst brought physical play and a rowdy crowd with it to Bright, and matched Harvard’s play for nearly six periods of hockey.

Ultimately, tri-captain Julie Chu caught a pass from fellow tri-captain Nicole Corriero and put it past Desirae Clark to win the game in the third overtime.

Now the Crimson win have its one last chance to take its claim to the East and possibly become the best team in the country.

Before playing Mercyhurst, it had not seen any teams west of New York since just after Thanksgiving, and now in the NCAAs it will have a chance at a rematch.

—Staff writer Gabriel M. Velez can be reached at gmvelez@fas.harvard.edu.