Team Notes: Revenge in Mind as Harvard Travels to Dartmouth
The Particulars
The Crimson hits the road for the first time in two and a half
weeks as it looks to exact revenge on ECAC and Ivy League rival
Dartmouth. The Big Green upset the Crimson, 3-2, in the teams'
first meeting of the 2011-12 season in
Cambridge.
Series History
The Harvard-Dartmouth series is the most contested in program
history, and also one of the few in which Harvard trails, with a
35-41-2 mark in 78 all-time matchups. Tonight's matchup
represents the first time since the start of NCAA play that neither
team in the contest has been nationally ranked.
The two teams kicked off the 2011-12 season series at Bright
Hockey Center Nov. 23. For the second straight game, Harvard scored
within the first minute of play as Lyndsey Fry (Chandler, Ariz.) redirected a
Josephine Pucci (Pearl River, N.Y.) shot
just 39 seconds in. Dartmouth rallied for a pair of scores in the
second period and added a third in the final frame. Jillian Dempsey's (Winthrop, Mass.) goal
with under a minute to go wasn't enough to save the Crimson from a
3-2 defeat.
In just its third home game of the 2010-11 season, Harvard
defeated ninth-ranked Dartmouth, 5-3, thanks to a balanced scoring
attack. Five different Harvard players notched goals as Marissa Gedman (Framingham, Mass.) started
the scoring and Liza Ryabkina '11, Elizabeth Parker (Milton, Mass.), Kate
Buesser '11 and Katharine Chute '11 followed with tallies.
Buesser's goal was a shorthanded effort, and Laura Bellamy (Duluth, Minn.) picked up 20
saves in the win.
In the back half of the home-and-home, Harvard came back twice
from one-goal deficits to grab a 3-2 win in Hanover, N.H. Jillian
Dempsey scored Harvard's first goal of the night, its second
shorthanded effort in as many games, to pull even with the Big
Green at 1-1. Alisa Baumgartner (West Vancouver, B.C.)
squared the score at 2-2 early in the third period, and Dempsey
picked up her second of the night to seal the 3-2 win for the
Crimson.
The two teams met for a third time in an ECAC semifinal at Bright,
and the Big Green exacted revenge for the regular season results.
Josephine Pucci knotted the score at 1-1 with a goal in the first
period, but Dartmouth went onto put in three unanswered scores to
claim a 4-1 win and advance to the ECAC championship game.
Last Time Out
The No. 9 Crimson ran into a talented No. 2 Minnesota squad in a
pair of games last weekend, and the Golden Gophers skated away from
Bright with a pair of wins, 2-1 and 7-3.
Game 1 was a defensive battle that featured stellar play from both
goalies. Minnesota got on the board first with just under two
minutes to play in the fist period and carried the 1-0 lead into
the final stanza. The Gophers made it 2-0 at 12:03 of the third
period, but Harvard answered two minutes later as Marissa Gedman's
slapshot weaved through traffic and found the back of the net,
bringing the Crimson within one. Harvard went on the power play
with just over two minutes left in the game but was unable to find
the qualizer in the 2-1 loss.
Scoring came early and often in Game 2 as the squads combined for
four goals in the first five minutes of the contest. Gina McDonald (New Brighton, Minn.) got
Harvard on the board off a Jillian Dempsey pass to cut the deficit
to 3-1 and Dempsey netted one of her own at the end of the first to
make it 4-2 after one period of play.
Sarah Edney (Mississauga, Ont.) notched a
power-play tally in the second period, but the Gopher offense
proved too powerful in the 7-3
decision.
Scouting the Big Green
Dartmouth is having an up-and-down season through 10 games,
bringing a 5-4-1 overall record, along with a 4-2-1 ECAC mark, into
the Harvard game. Dartmouth has played three straight one-goal
games, claiming victories in the last two.
After sinking the Crimson Nov. 23, the Big Green welcomed No. 10
Northeastern to Thompson Arena and topped the Huskies, 4-3. The
guests took a 1-0 lead just over a minute into the game but a
power-play goal by Margaux Sharp squared the score at 1-1 entering
the first break. Kelly Foley put Dartmouth out in front with the
only goal of the second period and Sally Komarek gave Dartmouth a
two-goal cushion with a goal just 1:02 into the third period.
Northeastern rallied for two goals in the homestretch, forcing the
game to overtime, but Komarek struck again, just 51 seconds into
the extra frame, giving Dartmouth the dramatic, 4-3 victory.
Foley is the team leader in both points (11) and goals (7), and
the senior forward has a team-high 49 shots this year. Reagan
Fischer is the team's assist leader with seven on the season, and,
at +10, Camille Dumais is the highest-rated player on the squad.
Sasha Nanji remains the biggest scoring threat from the blue line
with 3-3-6 points and Ali Winkel has the team lead in power-play
goals as two of her three scores have come on the player
advantage.
Sophomore goalie Lindsay Holdcroft has been excellent for the Big
Green, bringing a 1.74 goals-against average and .934 save
percentage into the matchup with Harvard. She has allowed just five
goals over her last four games.
League's Elite
As a team, Harvard ranks among the top of the league in a number
of categories. The Crimson boasts the second-best scoring offense
in the league as one of just two teams averaging better than three
goals per game at 3.11 per contest. Harvard has converted on 27.3
percent of its power-play chances, which also ranks second in the
ECAC, and its 12 power-play goals ranks fifth in the league,
despite Harvard playing the fewest number of games of any ECAC
Hockey squad.
Granite State of Mind
While teams from the state of New Hampshire have traditionally
given Harvard trouble, the Crimson has performed well recently when
playing in the Granite State. In its last five games played in New
Hampshire, Harvard is 4-0-1, having beaten Dartmouth three straight
times on its home ice and gone 1-0-1 against UNH in Durham, N.H.
The last time the Crimson lost while playing in its northerly
neighbor was 2007-08, when the Wildcats handed Harvard its only
regular-season loss of the year, 4-1. Harvard's last loss at
Dartmouth came Dec. 15, 2006, a 4-1 decision.
In Need of an Ivy Win
Even though the Crimson boasts the second-best overall record
among Ivy League schools, Harvard has yet to record a win against
an Ivy team this season in a pair of attempts. Over the past five
seasons, Harvard has compiled a 37-8-5 record against Ancient Eight
schools, including a perfect 10-0-0 mark in 2007-08. The Crimson
finished first in the Ivy standings in 2007-08 and 2008-09.
Everyday Dempsey
Junior Jillian Dempsey has been a consistent force for the Crimson
this season. Dempsey missed two games while suiting up for the U.S.
Women's National team, but in the seven games she has played for
Harvard, she has logged at least one point in six. Dempsey has four
multi-point games on the season and has notched two points, on a
goal and an assist, in three of her last four games. Dempsey enters
the Dartmouth game tied for 21st in the nation with 1.43 points per
contest and ranks fifth in the league in that category.
ECAC Recognition
After helping the Crimson clinch the season series sweep against
St. Lawrence and Clarkson last weekend, Laura Bellamy was named
ECAC Hockey Goalie of the Week for Nov. 21. In Friday's game
against the Golden Knights, Bellamy was outstanding, recording her
second-highest saves total of the season, with 29 shots in a 2-1
victory. The Duluth, Minn., native was equally solid the following
night against the Saints, turning aside 26 shots and helping the
Crimson go a perfect 8-for-8 on the penalty kill for the first time
since the 2007-08 season. The award marks Bellamy's second league
recognition of her career, as she picked up a Rookie of Week nod as
a freshman.
Face The Facts
Jillian Dempsey is the go-to person when it comes to faceoffs for
Harvard. The junior has posted a winning faceoff record in four of
her seven games played and had her best performance on the dot
against Dartmouth Nov. 23. Dempsey won 18 of 29 faceoffs against
the Big Green.
