Harvard beats Quinnipiac in Shootout

The Harvard Crimson welcomed in the #8 ranked Quinnipiac Bobcats for a Friday late afternoon tilt at the Bright Landry Hockey Center. It hasn’t been smooth sailing for either squad coming into today’s matchup as Harvard has gone 2-2-1 over their last 5GP with Quinnipiac faring only slightly better at 3-2-0 over that same span. As the teams head into the end of their schedules,  today would be a good day to get things going in the right direction for either side.

It took some bonus hockey, and a shootout; but Harvard prevailed 2-1 to give them a boost heading down the home stretch and that all important extra point.

In net for the visitors was Felicia Frank making her 31^st start of the campaign. The Swedish sophomore has a sparkling .945%SV and a miniscule 1.38GAA coming into today’s game. At the other end of the sheet stood Ms. Beanpot herself: Ainsley Tuffy. The Duxbury native brought her own guns to this goalie duel with a bonkers .956%SV and a stingy 1.68GAA of her own. Sheesh, it looks like goals were going to be tough to come by in this one (that’s called foreshadowing). 

For the opening few shifts the game play was fairly balanced with neither team having a distinct advantage until Harvard drew first blood. A turnover in the Quinnipiac zone led to an absolute snipe by Angelica Megdanis from the inside of the LW circle. Megdanis dragged 2 Bobcat defenders on her backhand before tucking the puck over the blocker. That puck was put on net with bad intentions: bar down in a blink of an eye, that’s rock star shite.

That score held until the first intermission. The temperature and pace ramped up throughout the period as the clock wound down. Both teams were fairly liberal with the stick work and body contact along the wall but it was a late net drive by Quinnipiac’s Kahlen Lamarche that drew the ire (and the crosscheck) of Harvard’s Kate Kasica once Tuffy covered the puck. The sides were separated with no PIMs but you could feel the nasty building.

And then with the chef’s kiss move that a beer league agitator like myself appreciates/respects/loves. Quinnipiac’s Mia Lopata put the puck on Tuffy juuuuuuuust a hair after the horn for the end of the period. Way to set this game up for more of the nasty that makes hockey so special.

The middle frame saw Harvard pushing the pace on their opening shift and they generated a few good looks but they were unable to solve Frank. Quinnipiac countered with a long set up in the Harvard zone generated by the human cheat code known as Emerson Jarvis. #12 is a one woman outlet and cycle, her edge work and speed is next level. She circled (with the puck) in the Harvard zone long enough for the Bobcats to swap out players for fresh legs while maintaining puck possession.

We’ve obtained actual footage of Jarvis dry speed training. She’s the fastest kid alive…

For the remainder of the period the play was back and forth, with a slight territorial edge to Quinnipiac. And then all hell broke loose in the last few minutes of the period. First the Bobcats rang iron off the stick of Lamarche (no overhead camera angle to truly determine if it was in was available), then a bowling ball of a play in front of the Harvard bench sent Quinnipiac to the power play where they put another puck off the pipe… so close. It looked like the penalty would carry over to the 3rd until Quinnipiac got one past Tuffy with 0.6 seconds left to play.

A face-off win at the LW circle saw the puck come to Ella Sennick at the half wall. Sennick fed it to Aynsley D’Ottavio at the opposite point and she put the puck on net. Taylor Brueske got a stick on it from just outside the blue paint and directed the puck past Tuffy to tie the game with less than a tick left on the clock.

The teams battled back and forth for the entire 3rd period taking turns seizing momentum only to see the other squad claw back with their own push. I don’t believe we had a whistle or a media timeout for the last 8mins of game play. Stripes was letting the ladies play and The Hockey Gods approved.

As time was winding down in the final frame, Harvard did just a little too much on an interference play on Jarvis and the Crimson was whistled for the infraction. So what does Harvard HC Laura Bellamy do? She activatesElla Lucia. I’ve spoken about Lucia’s game in the past, but holy smokes! If you get a chance to watch her in person she’s worth the price of admission. She’s the ultimate closer, late in the game you call her number and she does it all: Hunts pucks, wins face-offs, sacrifices the body and plays physically.

Just Ella Lucia doing Ella Lucia things.

She’s the 1C on Team Brownie for sure.

Lucia was instrumental in getting this game to overtime as she was a monster on the PK for the Crimson. But let’s not forget to give some love to the ‘tendies. No one could solve either goalie in the extra time. First a 4:3 PP for Quinnipiac, then 4:4 and then eventually 3:3 after a whistle. But both Tuffy and Frank stood tall with Tuffy seeing significantly more action. At the end of regulation the SOG were 31 for Quinnipiac and 17 for Harvard.

So the squads headed to the shootout.

Away we go….

Harvard Kaley MacDonald ❌
Quinnipiac Angelica Megdanis ❌
Harvard Carla McSweeney 🚨

I mean who you gonna call??

Have you forgotten her Beanpot heroics?
Quinnipiac Laurence Frenette ❌
Harvard Scout Oudemool ❌
Quinnipiac Kahlen Lamarche ❌

Harvard gets the shootout win and will face off vs. Princeton tomorrow afternoon while Quinnipiac heads north to battle Dartmouth.

Some observations from the rink:

• Harvard’s Elle Sproule is my kind of player. Skill for days mixed with hustle and plenty of grit along the wall.
• Quinnipiac’s Aynsley D’Ottavio was laying out for blocks from her first shift through the end of overtime. Absolute beauty.
• Speaking of eating pucks, Quinnipiac’s Mia Lopata went face-first in her own zone to snuff out a Harvard scoring bid late in the 2nd. Another beautician.

If you’ve read this far, you’re clearly a fan of the women’s game so give us a follow on socials and check out our podcast. You can find us on all platforms and on socials we’re @BTGHockeyPod

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