Team Notes: No. 9 Harvard Meets No. 7 Minnesota
The Particulars
Harvard continues its run against ranked opponents, flying to
Minnesota to take on the No. 7 Gophers in a two-game series at
Ridder Arena. The two games will be the first non-conference
contests of the season for the Crimson and begins a streak of
five-straight non-league matchups, four of which come against
nationally ranked opponents.
Follow From Home
Harvard will provide live statistics for this weekend's games, all
home games and most road contests this season. Video and
audio are available for both games this weekend, and links can be
found on the women's hockey schedule on GoCrimson.com.
Series History
The Crimson and Gophers have faced off 14 times with the first
matchup coming during the 1997-98 season. Harvard captured the
inagural game between the two sides, 3-2, and won the next two as
well. In the overall series, however, Harvard trails with a record
of 5-8-1, having dropped five straight games against Minnesota
between 2003 and 2009.
Last Year Against the Gophers
The Harvard defense had arguably its finest showing of the 2009-10
season in a two-game series against No. 2 Minnesota at Bright
Hockey Center. The Crimson, led by goalie Christina Kessler '10,
skated to a 1-0 win on Dec. 4 and forced a 0-0 tie the following
afternoon.
Liza
Ryabkina (Kharkiv, Ukraine) scored the only goal in the
first game, redirecting a Jillian
Dempsey (Winthrop, Mass.) pass into the Gopher net just 33
seconds into the third period to give Harvard the 1-0 win. Kessler
made 24 saves in the first game and 29 saves in the second game of
the series to force the scoreless draw.
Last Time Out
A night after upsetting No. 9/10 Dartmouth, 5-3, at home, the
Harvard repeated the feat on the road, skating to a 3-2 victory
over the Big Green Saturday afternoon at Thompson Arena.
The Crimson rallied to tie the score early in the third as Alisa
Baumgartner (West Vancouver, B.C.) registered her first
goal of the season off an Ashley
Wheeler (Concord, Mass.) pass, giving Wheeler an assist in
back-to-back contests. With just over two minutes remaining in the
game, Jillian Dempsey struck again, potting her second goal of the
game off a Leanna
Coskren (Walpole, Mass.) pass to give the Crimson the 3-2
lead for good.
Harvard held the Big Green to one power-play goal on four chances
while Harvard was 0-for-1 in man-up chances. Laura
Bellamy (Duluth, Minn.) registered a season-high 28 saves
in her third win of the season. Harvard earned the win against the
Big Green despite being outshot for just the second time this
year.
Harvard Coach Katey Stone
Katey Stone, the Landry Family Head Coach for Harvard Women's
Hockey, is in her 17th season as Harvard's head coach, and she
holds a 343-146-29 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.
Crimson Captains
Leading the Crimson are three senior captains: Kate
Buesser (Wolfeboro, N.H.), Leanna Coskren and Liza
Ryabkina.
New Faces
Seven freshmen are donning 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.).
Silver Stone
Katey Stone returned to the Harvard bench after missing four games
due to her committment to the U.S. National Women's Team. Stone led
Team USA to a silver medal at the 2010 Four Nations Cup in
Newfoundland, Canada in mid-November. Stone's squad swept through
pool play, downing defending champion Canada, 3-2, but fell to the
Canadians in the gold-medal game by a 3-2 score in overtime. Former
Harvard players Caitlin Cahow '08 and Julie Chu '06-07 were on the
U.S. roster, as well as current sophomore Josephine
Pucci (Pearl River, N.Y.).
Hold Your Fire
In 24 periods of regulation hockey so far this season, Harvard has
only allowed double-digit shots eight times 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 on net in the second stanza. Harvard held
Colgate to just two shots in the third period in a 3-1 win and also
held Quinnipiac to just two shots in the third period of a 4-1
loss. The Crimson was outshot for just the second time this season
Nov. 20 at Dartmouth, but came away from Hanover, N.H., with a 3-2
victory.
Harvard has yet to allow more than 30 shots to an opposing team in
a game this season. The Crimson is averaging 30.4 shots per game to
its opponents' 22.2 and is outshooting its opponents 243-178
through six games. Harvard's 243 shots on goal on the season is the
highest total in league play.
About Minnesota
The Gophers enter the Harvard series on a two-game winning streak
having downed Minnesota State, 1-0 and 6-2, last weekend in
Mankato, Minn. While Minnesota has five losses on the season to
date, it has also seen one of the toughest early schedules in the
country, having already played six games against ranked opponents,
including two against top-ranked Wisconsin. Minnesota came out on
top of a 7-5 slugfest against the Badgers Nov. 5, but has dropped
every other matchup against a ranked opponent this season.
A trio of freshman forwards sit atop the team scoring chart and
five Gophers have already logged double-digit points in the potent
offense. Rookie Kelly Terry leads all players with 14 points
(6-8-14) while classmates Amanda Kessel (5-7-12) and Sarah Davis
(4-7-11) round out the top three. Junior Sarah Erickson has
collected 10 points on the year (6-4-10), as has fellow junior Anne
Schleper (2-8-10), the top-scoring defenseman on the Minnesota
roster. Sophomore goalie Noora Raty brings a 7-3-0 record into this
weekend's games to go along with a 1.81 goals against average and
.935 save percentage.
Getting Involved
Through the first eight games, five of the six freshmen that have
seen game action have registered at least one point. Marissa Gedman
leads all rookies, and is second on the team, with five points
(1-4-5) on the season, while Kalley Armstrong has two points
(1-1-2) on the year and Gina McDonald had an assist against Brown.
Elizabeth Parker picked up her first goal of her career
against Dartmouth Nov. 19 and Jackie Young nearly picked up her
first point against Colgate, hitting the pipe with a slapshot from
the blueline. Lauren Joarnt has seen action in three games this
season and enters the Minnesota series with a .894 save percentage
and 2.07 GAA.
It's All Over
Harvard is 113-2-6 (.958) since the start of the 2004-05 season
when leading after two periods.
A Note About the Schedule
After facing Dartmouth in two-straight contests Nov. 19-20,
Harvard will play its second consecutive two-game series when it
takes on Minnesota Nov. 26 and 28. Harvard has never played
back-to-back two-game series in the history of the program.
There's Some History Here
While Harvard and Minnesota have only met 14 times, a handful of
those games have been on a bigger stage than normal. The first
meeting between the two teams kicked off Harvard's 1997-98 schedule
and was the opening game of the All-American Tournament, hosted by
the Gophers.
The two teams also met in the NCAA tournament in
back-to-back-to-back seasons. The Crimson downed the Gophers, 6-1,
in the semifinal round of the 2003 NCAA tournament before losing to
Minnesota Duluth, 4-3 in double overtime, in the final. In 2004,
Minnesota returned the favor, skating past the Crimson, 6-2, in the
national championship game and repeated the feat in 2005, earning a
4-3 victory over the Crimson to claim its second-straight national
title.
