In one of the most critical games of its season, the No. RV/9 Harvard women’s ice hockey squad (10-6-1, 7-5-1 ECAC) plays hosts to No. 1/1 Boston College (23-0-0, 16-0-0 Hockey East) at Bright-Landry, looking to break the Eagles prolific winning streak as well as its own two game losing streak.
The Crimson was the last team to defeat BC, knocking them out of the Frozen Four with a 2-1 victory in the national semifinals. Since then, the Eagles have won 23 straight contests.
BC will head into Cambridge with revenge in mind. After trouncing Harvard by a score of 10-2 in their first matchup of the season last year, the Crimson walked away with one-goal victories when they faced off in the Beanpot and Frozen Four, leaving the Eagles–who were ranked in the top two in both occasions–empty-handed at the end of the season.
Senior forwards Alex Carpenter and Haley Skarupa–who are ranked second and third in the nation in total points, respectively–will lead a talented Eagle attack that will test a shaky Harvard backline.
Crimson captain Emerance Maschmeyer, who holds the record for most saves in Harvard history, anchors a defense which conceded seven goals in the last two games. After holding a sub-1 goals-against-average early on in the season, the senior goalkeeper’s average has ballooned to nearly two goals allowed per game while her save percentage has dropped to 0.944.
On the offensive side, a Crimson unit struggling with consistency will attempt to make its way past BC sophomore goalkeeper Katie Burt and the third best scoring defense in the nation.
After scoring three or more goals in eight of its first 12 games, Harvard has scored more than two goals on one just occasion in the last six games–a 6-2 beat down of Colgate. During thw six-game stretch, the Crimson has posted a paltry 2-4-0 record.
Senior Miye D’Oench–who ranks 15th in the nation with 22 points through 17 games–will need to provide a spark for the 14th ranked scoring offense in the nation. The Harvard attack will need to fire on all cylinders to break down an impressive BC defense that has conceded more than two goals only three times this season and boasts a 93.6 percent kill rate on the power play.
In addition to claiming local bragging rights, this game could go a long way in the Crimson’s chances of returning to the postseason for the fourth year in a row. The BC matchup kicks off a tough stretch of four ranked opponents in five games for Harvard–including another matchup with the Eagles in the first round of the Beanpot on Feb. 2nd.
After falling to Clarkson this weekend, Harvard finds itself on the outside looking in; the PairWise rankings, which are an accurate prediction of where a team ranks by the NCAA Tournament committee’s standards, has the Crimson ranked 11th.
With only eight teams making the tournament and the threat that a low-ranked team could steal a spot by winning a conference title, a victory against BC would go a long way in helping the Crimson secure a place in the top eight. A loss against the Eagles could force Harvard to have to play near-perfect hockey and/or win the ECAC postseason title against the likes of Princeton, Quinnipiac, and Clarkson–top-eight ranked teams the Crimson has failed to defeat so far this season.
