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ECAC Title Eludes Women's Hockey

Super Smasch
Mark Kelsey

Sophomore goalie Emerance Maschmeyer, shown here in earlier action, had 42 saves against Wisconsin. The 2-1 loss in the NCAA quarterfinals ended the Crimson's season.

Entering the final weekend of regular season play, the No. 5/5 Harvard women’s ice hockey team had a pair of titles on the line. Road tests at Yale and Brown would determine if the Crimson (21-4-4, 16-3-3 ECAC) could lock up the Ivy League Championship as well as the No. 1 seed in the ECAC tournament.

Unfortunately for Harvard, a tie against the Bulldogs (8-14-7, 6-9-7) on Friday evening was not enough for the ECAC regular season conference championship. The disappointing 3-3 finish meant that the Crimson would finish second in ECAC league play. But Harvard quickly rebounded the following afternoon with a 3-1 win over the Bears (4-20-5, 3-16-3) to take home the Ancient Eight title.

HARVARD 3, BROWN 1

Even though the ECAC title had eluded the team, the Crimson came out firing in its second contest of the weekend hoping to take home the Ivy League championship.

“We’ve been harping on it all year that we need to play a full 60 minutes of hockey,” sophomore forward Miye D’Oench said. “It’s not enough to just come out flying or finish strong, but you have to play the whole game uniformly well. Coming off the Yale tie, we wanted to play a full 60 minutes against Brown, and I think we came pretty close.”

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A quick goal by D’Oench just two minutes into the game gave Harvard a 1-0 lead. The Crimson built on that momentum with back-to-back goals in the span of thirty seconds by senior Elizabeth Parker in the second frame to give Harvard a comfortable cushion heading into the third.

Freshman goaltender Brianna Laing, who has split time between the pipes this season with sophomore goalie Emerance Maschmeyer, recorded 30 saves in the contest.

The win, along with a loss by Cornell that afternoon, meant that the Crimson would take home its second-straight Ancient Eight title.

“We get to put a year up on that [Ivy League Championship] banner,” D’Oench said. “A lot of teams don’t get to do that, so that’s pretty special.”

HARVARD 3, YALE 3

A quick goal by Parker just four minutes into the contest put the Crimson up against the Bulldogs, but Harvard saw its advantage vanish by the end of the period. Two power play goals by Yale gave the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead after the first frame.

“We had a very, very fast start,” D’Oench said. “I thought we were all over them for the first five or ten minutes. Unfortunately, we got two penalties that cost us. They were able to pop in a few quick goals, and that kind of changed the flow of the game.”

A tripping penalty on freshman defender Briana Mastel gave the Bulldogs the man advantage, and Yale needed only five seconds to capitalize on the opportunity. The Bulldogs won the ensuing faceoff and freshman defender Taylor Marchin drove the puck straight into the net to tie up the game.

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