The Crimson had converted just 13 percent of its power-play chances coming into last night’s contest, but the team has scored four times with the man advantage in the last three games.
Stone has been shuffling her power-play units of late, but both units on the ice in the last three games have generated chances and goals.
“I guess the main thing is that we’re not trying to tweak it all the time, but we’re not afraid to change it if it’s not working,” Stone said.
Ryabkina’s unit—with McDonald and rookies Jillian Dempsey, Josephine Pucci, and Romatoski—was the group that found the back of the net last night, capitalizing on Ryabkina’s move from the point to the baseline.
“We’re really looking to put people in the right spots,” Stone said. “Depending on who we’re playing against…we’ve had Liza high on the power play, we had her low today, it was very effective for us.”
Harvard’s other unit—co-captains Cori Bassett and Kathryn Farni, senior Randi Griffin, and juniors Leanna Coskren and Buesser—tallied two power-play goals over the weekend, demonstrating the team’s newfound and balanced man-up success.
GETTING DEFENSIVE
While the Crimson’s offense had plenty of firepower last night—taking 101 shot attempts, 51 of which reached the net—its defense stifled a young Eagles offense that is still struggling to find its identity.
“With a young team…my kids are trying to make some perfect plays where we just have to make the hard-fought play,” BC coach Katie King said. “We had a three-on-one at one point, and we tried to tic-tac-toe it instead of just getting to the net and finding the rebound.”
Harvard allowed just 15 shots on goal, and freshman goaltender Laura Bellamy turned them all away for her second career shutout.
But Bellamy’s job was made easy by her blueliners, who limited the Eagles’ time and chances in the offensive zone.
“[The defense] cut off a lot of cross-ice passes that were going to the high slot or low slot—our kids were there tonight to do it,” Stone said. “They weren’t fixated on the puck, they were playing off the puck very well.”
—Staff writer Kate Leist can be reached at kleist@fas.harvard.edu.