Rookie goalie Kylie Stephens made a splash in Harvard’s exhibition series against McGill, coming in for the third period of both games and totaling 13 saves

Good things come in threes for the Harvard women’s hockey team.

In seniors Caitlin Cahow, Laura Brady, and Brenna McLean, the Crimson has three captains to take over the reins from last year’s leaders, Julie Chu ’06-’07 and Jennifer Sifers ’07.

And, this season, head coach Katey Stone welcomes a trio of new assistants to the bench in Sara DeCosta, Joakim Flygh, and Melanie Ruzzi.

But from the perspective of an opposing team, what might stand out from a Harvard roster deep at almost every position is the triple threat in goal. Junior Brittany Martin and sophomore Christina Kessler, who ended last season with 1.33 and 1.58 goals-against averages, respectively, return from last year’s NCAA Tournament team. And keeping them company will be Kylie Stephens, a freshman goaltender from North Carolina who showed a great deal of promise during the preseason.

ONLY ROOM FOR ONE

The Crimson experienced a dramatic twist prior to last season: Kessler, entering her freshman year as a highly touted recruit from the Toronto area, arrived in Cambridge with her knee in a brace.

The summer speculation was that Harvard would be loaded in net with the return of Martin from a successful rookie campaign and the addition of Kessler, one of the top youth goalies in Canada. But Kessler’s August injury, initially misdiagnosed, suggested it would be Martin’s show for the entire season.

“I knew right away that something was definitely wrong,” Kessler said last year. “I was told that my ACL and MCL were torn and that I would potentially lose my full year.”

Martin, with only a walk-on backing her up, led the Crimson to a 5-1-0 start with three shutouts along the way. Kessler returned, wearing a heavy brace, in mid-November, and won her first two outings.

Alternating starts for the remainder of the regular season, Martin and Kessler led Harvard to a 21-6-2 record.

But playoff time meant decision time, and Stone awarded Martin the starting job for the team’s run in the postseason. Martin turned in a career-best performance, posting a stunning 67 saves in a quadruple-overtime loss to Wisconsin.

“I think she played out of her mind in the Wisconsin game,” Stone says. “If you could duplicate that every day, you would have lightning in a ball.”

But Stone also cites the old sports adage that an athlete is only as good as her last performance—something that both Martin and Kessler will have to keep in mind as they work hard to duplicate the success of last year’s campaign.

“They will get every change to prove themselves, as they both did last year,” Stone says.

THREE’S A CROWD

A hockey team can never have too many good goalies.

This is precisely what Harvard discovered during its exhibition series against McGill two weekends ago. Kessler made the start in the first game against the Martlets, stopping all but one shot she faced, and Martin took the ice the following afternoon and recorded 15 saves in a 5-3 win.

But in the third period of each game, fans noticed a new jersey scoot into net for the Crimson—the No. 33 sweater of freshman Kylie Stephens.

Stephens made the most of her limited action, recording eight saves in Friday’s game and five saves on Saturday while giving up two goals.

After the game, Stone said that she gave the starts to Kessler and Martin to simulate real-game conditions but noted, “I’ll tell you what—Kylie Stephens is competing for that spot as well because she did a heck of a job for us.”

“I just plan to work hard to give myself the best opportunity I possibly can,” Stephens says.

All three goalies find themselves in a fortunate spot this year, as Harvard’s new goalie coach, Sara DeCosta, brings an Olympic gold medal and years of goaltending experience to the bench.

“We’re really excited about the goalie coach,” Martin says. “We don’t only learn from her, but we also learn from each other. She’s very good at seeing that and helping us learn from everyone else’s mistakes.”

In Martin, the Crimson has a two-year veteran with co-ownership of the school record for saves in one game to her name; in Kessler, a talented sophomore who didn’t let a painful knee injury prevent her from posting solid numbers last season; and in Stephens, a promising freshman eager to do whatever she can to help the team.

But in Stone’s mind, the starting decision rests upon one thing and one thing alone: “Who stops the puck more times than anybody else.”

“It’s not about personality, it’s about who comes to stop the puck consistently,” she adds.

—Staff writer Rebecca A. Compton can be reached at compton@fas.harvard.edu.