Team Notes: First Road Test as No. 10 Harvard Faces No. 2 Cornell, Colgate
The Harvard women's hockey team hits the road for a pair of ECAC
Hockey matchups, squaring off against Ivy League rival No. 2
Cornell Friday night at Lynah Rink and Colgate Saturday at Starr
Rink. This weekend marks the first road contests of the
season for Harvard, as well as its first ranked opponent in
Cornell.
Follow From Home
GoCrimson.com will provide live statistics for this weekend's
games, all home games and most road contests this season.
Video is available for the Harvard-Cornell matchup on Cornell's
athletics website, CornellBigRed.com.
Series History
Harvard holds the all-time series edge against Cornell with a
record of 50-19-3, despite dropping two of three games to the Big
Red last year. The Crimson had a ten-game winning streak against
the Big Red coming into last season, but Cornell downed Harvard
twice, once in the NCAA quarterfinal, and skated to a 4-4 tie en
route to an appearance in the national championship game. The last
time Harvard lost a game to Cornell in back-to-back seasons was in
1996-97 and 1997-98.
The Crimson and Raiders have faced off 19 times and Harvard holds
a significant advantage in the all-time series at 16-1-2. Last
season, Harvard recorded wins of 2-1 and 5-1 over Colgate to extend
its series unbeaten streak to six games. The last time Harvard lost
to the Raiders was during the 2006-07 season, a 3-1 decision.
Last Time Out
A balanced attack led the Crimson to its first victory of the
2010-11 campaign as four different players scored in a 4-2 win over
Brown, Saturday at Bright Hockey Center. Josephine
Pucci, Liza
Ryabkina, Jillian
Dempsey and Leanna Coskren all scored against the
Bears. Kaitlin
Spurling, Kelsey
Romatoski, Gina
McDonald and Pucci all recorded assists in the game while
goalie Laura
Bellamy made 13 saves. The Harvard blueline held Brown to
just 15 shots on the game after holding Yale to 13 the night
before.
Harvard Coach Katey Stone
Katey Stone is in her 17th season as Harvard's head coach, and she
holds a 340-144-28 career record, the most all-time victories
in Division I women's hockey. Stone has led Harvard to all eight of
its NCAA tournament appearances and was named the head coach of the
U.S. Women's National Team in the summer of 2010. Because of her
committment to the National Team, Stone will not be behind the
bench during Harvard's next four games as she will be with Team USA
at the Four Nations Cup. Assistant coaches Melanie Ruzzi and Maura
Crowell will lead the team against Cornell and Colgate.
Crimson Captains
Leading the Crimson will be three senior captains: Kate
Buesser (Wolfeboro, N.H.), Leanna Coskren (Walpole, Mass.)
and Liza Ryabkina (Kharkiv, Ukraine).
Preseason Prognostications
The ECAC Hockey coaches picked Harvard third in their preseason
poll and voted senior forward Kate Buesser to the preseason
all-conference team.
Team (first-place votes) Points
1. Cornell (11) 121
2. Clarkson (1) 105
3. Harvard 103
4. Quinnipiac 79
5. St. Lawrence 77
6. Princeton 73
7. Rensselaer 70
8. Dartmouth 52
9. Colgate 43
10. Yale 34
11. Brown 24
12. Union 11
New Faces
Seven freshmen will don the crimson, black and white this season.
The class of 2014 is comprised of goaltender Lauren
Joarnt (White Bear Lake, Minn.), Kalley
Armstrong (Maple, Ont.), Lyndsey
Fry (Chandler, Ariz.), Marissa
Gedman (Framingham, Mass.), Gina McDonald (New Brighton,
Minn.), Elizabeth
Parker (Acton, Mass.) and Jackie
Young (Medford, Mass.).
Rank And File
Harvard began the 2010-11 regular season schedule ranked in both
national polls. The Crimson is No. 10 in the most recent USCHO.com
poll while the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll also has Harvard
at No. 10.
About Cornell
The Big Red enters the Harvard matchup as one of the hottest teams
in college hockey. After a slim, 3-2, win over Robert Morris to
start the season, Cornell outscored its next three opponents by a
combined score of 19-3, downing Robert Morris, 9-1, and taking down
Quinnipiac and Princeton by scores of 5-1. Cornell absorbed its
first loss of the season in its last game, falling to No. 4
Mercyhurst, 4-3, in overtime at Lynah Rink. The game against
Mercyhurst kicked off a seven-game homestand for the Big Red.
About Colgate
At 3-5-0 overall and 1-1-0 in conference action, the Raiders are
also amidst an extended stay at home, welcoming Dartmouth to Starr
Rink on Friday before taking on the Crimson Saturday. The Raiders
have a handful of noteworthy wins already this season, taking down
No. 8 New Hampshire in their second game of the season and holding
off league rival Quinnipiac, 2-1 in overtime, their last time out.
Colgate has faced three ranked teams already this season and holds
a 1-2-0 record in those contests.
Empire State of Mind
Last season, the Crimson compiled a 6-6-2 overall record against
teams from the state of New York. Harvard was an even 3-3-1 at home
and on the road against New York teams.
Here We Go
Cornell represents the first ranked opponent for Harvard in the
2010-11 season as the Big Red enter the game ranked second in the
nation. Harvard was 5-2-4 against ranked opponents during the
regular season last year, but dropped decisions to
nationally-ranked Clarkson and Cornell in the 2010-11 playoffs.
Hold Your Fire
In six periods of regulation hockey so far this season, Harvard
has yet to allow double-digit shots in a given period. Against
Yale, Harvard limited the Bulldogs to 13 shots in the game
including just three in the second period. Brown managed 15 total
shots and fired just two in the second stanza. The Crimson is now
outshooting its opponents 83-28 through two games.
It's All Over
Harvard is 112-2-6 (.958) since the start of the 2004-05 season
when leading after two periods.
