Crimson Fall in Overtime to New Hampshire

Photo by DSPics.com

Final	1	2	3	OT	Final
New Hampshire (20-5-5)	1	1	0	1	3
Harvard (15-9-3)	0	2	0	0	2

Scoring Summary
1st - 17:28	Allen, Julie (New Hampshire)
2nd - 03:34	SH - Wakefield, Jenn (New Hampshire)
2nd - 09:21	Sarah Vaillancourt (Harvard)
2nd - 15:34	Kathryn Farni (Harvard)
OT - 04:21	PP - Birchard, Courtney (New Hampshire)

New Hampshire	Harvard
G: 3 Players (#2, #9, #24 - 1) A: 5 Players (#3, #7, #8, #9, #28 - 1) Sh: Faber, Sam - 7 Sv: Minton, Lindsey - 33	G: 2 Players (#8, #26 - 1) A: 2 Players (#7, #9 - 1) Sh: Sarah Vaillancourt - 10 Sv: Christina Kessler - 28

TEAM STATISTICS	New Hampshire	Harvard
Power Plays	1 for 5	0 for 3
Shorthanded Goals	1	0
Penalties (min)	3 (6)	5 (10)
Shots on Goal	31	35
Face Offs Won	25	38

full stats

Boxscore

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Christina Kessler made 28 saves and Sarah Vaillancourt and Kathryn Farni each tallied goals, but the No. 9 Harvard women’s hockey team suffered a 3-2 loss in overtime to No. 5 New Hampshire Tuesday evening at Bright Hockey Center. The Crimson (15-9-3) trailed 2-0 in the second, but came back to tie the game in the third before the Wildcats scored the game winner with 39 seconds to play in overtime.

The Wildcats struck first, scoring an even-strength goal on a 2-on-1 situation at 17:28 of the opening frame. Defender Courtney Sheary passed the puck up ice to Shannon Sisk, who skated down the left side. Julie Allen followed Sisk on the right and jammed home Sisk’s centering pass through Kessler and into the net. UNH (20-5-5) led, 7-5, in shots through one with each team failing to score on a power-play opportunity.

Early in the second, UNH tacked on another score, as the Wildcats went up 2-0 on a short-handed tally by Jenn Wakefield. Kelly Paton intercepted a pass in the neutral zone and carried the puck down the center of the ice. As she neared the faceoff circles, Paton dumped a pass to her right, finding Wakefield who chipped the puck into the left corner of the net. Three minutes later, the Wildcats almost made it a three-goal game, but Kessler stopped a shot by Kacey Bellamy on the doorstep.

After falling behind two goals, the Crimson began to find an offensive groove, starting with a chance by Buesser from the right of the crease. Buesser accepted a pass from Anna McDonald through the crease, but could not stuff the puck across the line.

Midway through the second, Vaillancourt got the Crimson on the scoreboard as she took the puck from the blue line and mustered a chance past UNH’s Lindsey Minton at 9:21. Nora Sluzas and Jenny Brine earned assists on the play, as Harvard cut its deficit in half, 2-1.

The Crimson was called for two penalties within 43 seconds of one another, resulting in a 5-on-3 power play for the Wildcats for one minute, 17 seconds. Harvard’s defense stood tall and did not allow UNH to regain a two-goal lead, and in the process, extended its streak of penalty-kill perfection to 41 straight chances.

At 15:34, Harvard controlled the puck in the UNH zone, but a Wildcat defender grabbed a loose puck and tried to clear it from the zone by swinging the puck from around the net. Farni skated to the right boards and kept it in the zone before firing a slap shot on net. Amy Uber, camping out in front of the UNH goal, created a screen and Farni’s shot made it through, hitting the back of the net and tying the game, 2-2.

In the third, Harvard outshot UNH, 17-9, and had a power-play chance with 3:28 to play, but could not pull ahead, as the game headed into overtime. Through the first 60 minutes, the Crimson held a 31-28 advantage in shots and was 0-of-3 with an extra skater, while the Wildcats were 0-for-4.

Less than two minutes into the extra session, Vaillancourt, who had 10 shots on goal on the night, blasted the puck from the corner of the right circle, but Minton pushed it aside. Moments later, Leanna Coskren carried the puck into the slot and rolled a pass to Vaillancourt, who was standing to the right of the crease. Vaillancourt, though, was tangled up with a defender and could not get her stick on the pass as Minton covered up with her glove.

At 3:39, Liza Ryabkina was called for a holding penalty in the UNH zone, giving the Wildcats a power play for the remainder of the contest. After winning a faceoff in the Crimson end of the ice, Sam Faber played the puck from the left boards toward Wakefield. Wakefield then moved the puck to Birchard who wristed a shot that got through a screen in front and found the back of the net, giving UNH the win with only 39 seconds remaining in overtime.

Harvard will close out the regular season with ECAC Hockey home games against No. 7 St. Lawrence and Clarkson Friday and Saturday. The Crimson trails the Saints by one point in the ECAC Hockey standings. The puck will drop Friday at 7 p.m.