The women’s hockey team found success on the road this weekend, clinching a solid 4-2 victory against Harvard Friday night and skating to a 2-2 tie against the Brown Bears on Saturday. The win and the tie bring the Red to 4-14-1 overall and 3-6-1 in the ECAC-North.
Friday’s victory in Cambridge was a sweet answer to the Red’s 5-0 home loss to the Crimson early last November. While Harvard entered the game with a higher ranking and several outstanding individual players, team intensity and a balanced effort helped the Red steal the win.
Sophomores Anita Kahr and Briana Jentner came up big for the Red — each had two points on the game with an assist and a goal apiece. In fitting fashion, the two started off the scoring for the Red, feeding junior Brooke Bestwick just 2:39 into the first period. Harvard answered back with its own score less than two minutes later, though, as freshman phenom Nicole Correiro found the back of the net on a Crimson power play.
Defense dominated both ends until 16:00 in the second, when junior Lindsay Murao notched the Red’s second goal just as the referee blew his whistle to signal a dead puck. After some discussion the goal was judged legal, giving the Red a 2-1 lead going into the third period.
Assisted by senior Eva Nahorniak, Kahr scored her first goal of the season and put the Red up by a pair just over 17 minutes into the third. Not to be outdone, Crimson freshman Ashley Banfield answered with her first goal of the season as well, tallying with 10 minutes to go in the game. Junior netminder Liz Connelly kept the puck out of the Red’s net for the remainder of regulation and finished with an impressive 26 saves, while the 4-2 final resulted from an open-goal shot from Jentner with 17 seconds on the game clock.
The Red couldn’t put together two wins for the weekend, but a gutsy finish against Brown on Saturday forced an overtime tie and showed once again that they can hold their own against the nation’s best. The Bears entered the game coming off of a win as well, as the No. 9 Bears had handed Colgate a 5-1 defeat the previous evening.
Nahorniak helped Khar put in her first goal Friday night against the Crimson, and Saturday saw the sophomore return the favor. This time Khar fed Nahorniak for her first score, a power play goal that found its way past Bear’s netminder Pam Dreyer. Sophomore goalie Sanya Sandahl proved tougher in net than Dreyer in the first, stopping an outstanding 18 shots in the period.
The Bear’s offensive pressure continued however, and freshman Jess Link put Brown on the board just over seven minutes into the second. With the score locked at 1-1, Sandahl continued to play tough defense throughout the period, denying a continuous barrage of shots on goal. Three minutes into the third, Brown senior Kristy Zamora finally managed to beat the Cornell goaltender, putting her team up 2-1.
With under a minute to go in regulation Bestwick saved the game for the Red, tallying her second goal of the weekend and fourth on the season. Her goal would be the last as a scoreless overtime period secured the 2-2 tie. Sandahl may have been the MVP for the game, ending up with an amazing 42 saves in goal, but the weekend’s success was no doubt a result of the incredible team effort put forth by the Red.
The women will hit the road again next weekend for two more Ivy contests at Princeton and Yale.
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