The Harvard women’s ice hockey team started its season strong Saturday afternoon in a physical exhibition game against McGill at the Bright Hockey Center. In its first game without previous head coach Katey Stone since 1994, the Crimson was able to take down the Martlets, 5-2. The win marked Harvard’s eighth consecutive exhibition victory over McGill.

“It was a good starting point for us,” said interim Crimson coach Maura Crowell. “It’s great to have an exhibition game at the start of our season to see what we have…. I think that with the way things went we should be pleased.”

Though the Crimson graduated a number of key players last year, including Jillian Dempsey ’13 and Laura Bellamy ’13, the team welcomed seven newcomers onto the ice on Saturday. The freshmen skated alongside just two seniors, four juniors, and five sophomore teammates.

“Everybody tells us we have a young team, so it’s always good to see how our players are going to adapt to a live game…. They handled [the pace] really well,” Crowell said.

Among the rookies, Sydney Daniels and Abigail Frazer displayed their shooting abilities, both finding the back of the net once.

“The freshmen didn’t play like freshmen, which is great,” said junior Samantha Reber, last season’s leader in points, “We are trying to get used to playing with each other and trying to get used to the system.”

The Crimson displayed its deep bench with five players each scored a goal. In addition to the freshmen, three familiar faces capitalized for Harvard.

Junior defenseman Sarah Edney scored the Crimson’s first goal, assisted by sophomore Jessica Harvey and senior Elizabeth Parker. Edney’s classmate, Hillary Crowe, later tapped in the Crimson’s third goal; Reber and Frazer assisted on that one. Early in the third, Reber, assisted by classmate Marissa Gedman, found the back of the net in a Harvard man-up opportunity.

McGill had four man-up opportunities, one of which came on a five-minute major penalty against Crimson player Sydney Daniels for throwing an elbow that left a Martlet prostrated on the ice.

Despite having several power plays and outshooting the Crimson 27-22, McGill was unable to score until late in the third period. For most of the game, 2013 Ivy League Rookie of the year winner Emerance Maschmeyer stonewalled the visitors. Maschmeyer tallied 20 saves in goal during the first two periods of play.

“We came out strong in the first—got a goal. [Then] held them to no goals for basically the whole game,” Reber said.

Rookie goalie Brianna Laing manned the cage for the final period of play. She totaled five saves in her first collegiate game. However, Martlets senior Leslie Oles managed to drive the puck into the goal twice in the last three minutes of play. Oles already had seven goals for the season coming into Saturday’s game.

“Towards the end of the game…we just started running around a little too much, something we can easily fix,” Reber said.

Crowell was not concerned about the Martlet’s two points.

“We will work out some more of our kinks as we go,” Crowell said. “[We] want to see consistent play throughout three periods and that is something that we will continue to work on…. We want to review why those goals were scored and be sure that everyone is learning the process”

Though Saturday’s game opened the season for Harvard, McGill already began their season coming into the matchup. The Martlets bested several of the Crimson’s Ivy rivals: Princeton, Dartmouth, and Yale. However, the Martlets fell to NCAA teams Providence and Northeastern.

The Harvard team has high expectations for this season. The Crimson had a successful 2012-2013 season, finishing with a record of 24-7-3 and the Ivy League title. The Harvard players and coaches are positive about the programs future.

“We’ve got a lot of potential and strengths on the team…[we have] speed and skill,” Reber said. “Everyone wants to see improvement from here until the end of the season.”

Harvard will face conference members Quinnipiac and Princeton at home next weekend.

“We’re feeling good,” Crowell said. “[We] are going to keep practicing and polishing.”