Senior Randi Griffin, shown here in earlier action, had a breakout weekend for the Crimson, netting a game-winning penalty shot against Clarkson a night before notching a hat trick against St. Lawrence. Griffin scored four of Harvard's five goals over the two games.
When the game—and playoff home ice—is on the line, it’s hard to predict how a women’s hockey team will react.
On Friday night, St. Lawrence got desperate. But with the pressure on, Harvard senior Randi Griffin kept her cool.
Griffin converted a penalty shot with just 24.3 seconds on the clock to lift the No. 5 Crimson to a 2-1 win over the Saints (15-12-7, 11-8-3) at Appleton Arena. The victory gave Harvard coach Katey Stone 337 wins for her career—tying the NCAA all-time record.
“It was a really good game, back and forth,” Griffin said. “It literally came down to the last few minutes, which was exciting—they fought really hard.”
With the score knotted and time winding down, the Crimson dumped the puck into its offensive zone. As Harvard moved into a pattern, St. Lawrence netminder Maxie Weisz was knocked down by a teammate, putting her in the goal and out of commission.
No whistle blew, and the Crimson picked up the puck and put it on the undefended net.
But as the shot flew towards the goal, a Saint intentionally knocked the net off its moorings—causing the referees to award Harvard a penalty shot.
Stone tapped Griffin to take the shot.
“You have to choose someone who’s on the ice,” junior Kate Buesser explained. “[Griffin] faked the goalie out and put it in the left side of the [net].”
Though the penalty shot turned out to be a game-changer, for Griffin it was routine.
“We have a tradition where we have a showcase game every week—seniors and juniors versus freshmen and sophomores—a breakaway competition to see which team has more breakaways,” Griffin said. “We did a little cheer and called it the way we do [for the showcase]. I just tried to get myself in that state of mind. It’s something we do in practice every week.”
But Griffin’s late-game heroics wouldn’t have been possible without the Crimson’s third-period comeback.
Although Harvard started its longest road trip of the conference season with a bang—outshooting St. Lawrence, 7-0—in the first 10 minutes of play, it couldn’t find a way to solve Weisz, who made 11 saves in each of the first two frames.
But the Crimson’s defense, backstopped by freshman Laura Bellamy, kept the Saints off the board through two first-period power plays—limiting St. Lawrence to just two shots in four minutes of man-up action.
“[The defense] played really well,” Buesser said. “The less time we can spend in our defensive end, the better.”
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