The No. 3 Harvard women’s hockey team can’t help but look at 2008 as a fresh start. As they host league foes Cornell and Colgate at the Bright Hockey Center this weekend, the Crimson (11-1-0, 9-0-0 ECAC) will try to start the new year on the right foot.

“In college hockey these days, it’s two distinct seasons—what you do before Christmas and what you do after,” senior tri-captain Caitlin Cahow said. “It’s important for us to come back and play hard and get back on the horse.”

It has been almost three weeks since the then-top-ranked Harvard squad fell to No. 2 New Hampshire, 4-1, in Durham, NH on December 14. But after a short holiday break and a week of two-a-day practices, the Crimson is ready to bounce back from their first loss and start the journey back to the top of the polls.

“We’re focused on playing Harvard hockey and fixing the things we can do better that became obvious in the UNH game,” Cahow said.

Most of the team has been back in Cambridge since Dec. 27 preparing for a nine-day, five-game start to the year. They were, however, without Cahow, who returned to the team Jan. 1 after a stint at the USA Hockey Women’s National Camp in Lake Placid, NY.

“We ended 2007 with our first loss, but we jumped back really quickly into our routine and have been practicing really hard,” said junior Sarah Vaillancourt, the team’s leading scorer.

“We’ve been working on the power play, the penalty kill, but it’s mostly about getting a strong 5-on-5,” Cahow added. “There have been a couple of line changes and we’re settling into those.”

The refreshed and refocused Harvard squad will open their 2008 season against the Big Red (7-4-1, 4-1-1 ECAC) tonight at 7 pm.

“It’s important because it’s the next two games on our schedule,” head coach Katey Stone said. “I don’t think it’s necessarily more or less significant because of the loss to UNH.”

The Crimson holds a comfortable 4-point lead in the ECAC standings, but Cornell has a standout freshman in Rebecca Johnston.

Johnston, the younger sister of former Harvard hockey player Katie Johnston ’07, leads all freshmen nationally in scoring, with an average of 1.70 points per game.

Her 17 points (on 10 goals and seven assists) is good for second on the Big Red squad, and she has been named ECAC Rookie of the Week twice already this season.

Despite her ties to the Crimson, Johnston has strong family connections to Cornell as well. Her older sister, Sarah, is a senior on the Big Red hockey team, while her brother, Jacob, is a freshman for the men’s squad.

“She’s a very good player, and we look forward to seeing her,” Stone said.

Cornell is riding a four-game win streak into tonight’s matchup, although they haven’t been on the ice since their 3-2 win over Princeton on Dec. 1.

Harvard took both games last season, 5-2 and 9-1. Vaillancourt, who already has 26 points this season on nine goals and 17 assists, scored five goals and added two assists in last season’s second win.

“Cornell’s a growing team. We have to expect a really big game,” Vaillancourt said.

The Crimson will be out on the ice again at 4 pm tomorrow to face off against the Raiders (6-8-2, 3-2-1 ECAC). Although Harvard has only lost once to Colgate, that loss came in a 3-1 game played last February.

“We owe Colgate big-time,” Vaillancourt said. “It was probably our worst game [last year].”

Most of all, the Crimson is ready to get back out on the ice and put the UNH loss behind it.

“The kids have worked really hard,” Stone said. “Hopefully they’ll put that effort forward this weekend and good things will happen.”

“We play again on Tuesday [against Boston College], so it’s baptism by fire for us,” Cahow added. “We really want to come back strong and see what Harvard hockey can do in 2008.”

—Staff writer Kate Leist can be reached at kleist@fas.harvard.edu.