In dominant back-to-back performances, the Harvard women’s hockey team (4-0-0, 4-0-0 ECAC) extended its season-opening winning streak with road victories against Brown and Yale. In both meetings, the Crimson kept most of the action on its opponents’ side of the red line, outshooting the Bears and the Bulldogs by an aggregate margin of 86-17 without surrendering a goal.
“We went into [the weekend] knowing what we needed to do,” junior forward Lyndsey Fry said. “Our team is just really meshing this year. [There is] a lot of early-season excitement.”
While the defenders and goaltenders did their part to keep the puck out of the net, co-captain Jillian Dempsey’s five points on the weekend propelled the Crimson offense.
“We’re coming out playing hungry,” Dempsey said of her team’s efforts. “This weekend especially, we got a lot of shots towards the net. We were facing some really solid goaltending. Offensively, we were just trying to get in the goalie’s face [and] put pucks on net. It worked out well.”
HARVARD 4, YALE 0
A strong offensive presence helped Harvard past the Bulldogs (1-5-0, 1-3-0) on Saturday.
“We’ve really been working on our systems and playing in such a way that it’s hard for these teams to get past us in the offensive zone,” Fry said. “We know that we are offensively strong, and we’re going to do everything we can in order to keep it in that end.”
On the night, the Crimson recorded 48 shots on net compared to Yale’s 12.
A Bulldog cross-checking infraction led to a power play opportunity in the middle of the first for Harvard. Capitalizing on the advantage, Dempsey scored at 11:17 in the first period off an assist from sophomore defender Sarah Edney and Fry.
Fry found the back of the net just over three minutes later off a 3-on-1 breakaway, giving the Crimson a 2-0 advantage at the end of the first period.
After a scoreless second period, Edney registered her third consecutive assist of the night when she fed the puck to senior defenseman Hilary Hayssen, who scored 8:53 minutes into the third period.
Senior forward Kaitlin Spurling registered an unassisted goal just over three minutes later, as Harvard went on to a convincing 4-0 win.
“Spurling had a beautiful goal against Yale,” co-captain goaltender Laura Bellamy said. “But her strength was in showing up all over the ice. She was a huge contributor this weekend.”
Freshman goaltender Emerance Maschmeyer minded the net all night for the Crimson. She stopped all 12 shots, anchoring the team’s solid defensive effort. Having only surrendered one goal on the season, Maschmeyer currently boasts a .966 save percentage.
“Defensively, [our goalies] have been solid between the pipes,” Dempsey said. “There’s nothing better than knowing you can rely on phenomenal goaltending.”
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