In a game that was far closer than the score indicated, the women’s hockey team fell to No. 5 Harvard University 4-1 at Thompson Arena on Friday. The Dartmouth women (7-16-1, 6-11-1 ECAC) were doomed by an 0-5 night on the power play and an inability to beat Harvard sophomore Emerance Maschmeyer despite outshooting the Crimson (18-3-3, 14-2-2 ECAC) for the second time this season.
The Big Green had to jumble its lines because forward Karlee Odland ’15, a key member of the women’s top line, did not play. Catherine Berghuis ’16 filled her spot alongside Ali Winkel ’14 and Katy Ratty ’17 while Kennedy Ottenbreit ’17 filled in for Berghuis on line two.
“I think the team reacted to that really well, but it is tough,” head coach Mark Hudak said.
The offense moved well without Odland, finishing the game with 28 shots on goal, five more than Harvard managed against Dartmouth’s strong defense.
“The plan going in was to play really smart, controlled defensive game, and at the same time trying to put a lot of pressure anywhere that they had the puck,” Hudak said. “We were also trying to put as much offensive pressure on them as we could, getting pucks deeper in their zone, putting pucks on their net.”
Dartmouth executed its strategy well. Harvard kept to two goals through the first two periods, each near the beginning of the frames. For the first Crimson goal, junior Hillary Crowe received a pass in front of the net and shot. The puck caromed off a defender and over the shoulder of goaltender Lindsay Holdcroft ’14 for the goal. Six and a half minutes into the second, sophomore Miye D’Oench collected the puck on the halfboards and cut to the middle. As the Big Green defense closed in, the sophomore flicked a perfect backhand toward the net that clinked off the post and in for the goal.
Just 1:21 into the final frame, Lauren Kelly ’14 flicked the puck up the boards. Ottenbreit collected the puck, walked in and shot, sneaking the puck just behind Maschmeyer for her fifth tally of the season.
It was the first goal the Big Green has scored against Harvard this season.
“For pretty much most of the game, we were in it the whole time,” Lindsey Allen ’16 said. “It was just the last minute when they got the empty net goal. When Kennedy got the goal, we were only down by a goal, so we just had to keep pushing. We knew that we could get the goal, unfortunately we didn’t, but we knew the goalie could be scored on because we did it.”
Down one late, Dartmouth pulled Holdcroft for the extra attacker, but was unable to convert any scoring opportunities.
Harvard intercepted an off-target pass and scored the empty-netter with 32 seconds to go in the game. Twelve seconds later, Harvard beat Holdcroft to take the lead 4-1.
“I think we let down a little bit,” Hudak said. “There was such little time left, they’d just scored the third goal, it was kind of like, ‘Well, it looks like we’re not going to win,’ and we just let them win.”
The two quick goals sealed the game for Harvard.
With the loss, Dartmouth sits in ninth place in the ECAC entering the last four games of the season. The Big Green entered the contest tied for eighth with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with 13 points. RPI tied Yale University, who occupies seventh in the standings, this Saturday. The 2-2 score was the worst possible result for the Big Green, who are now one point behind the Engineers and two points behind the Bulldogs.
“We need to win as many games as we can because if we don’t we’re not in the playoffs,” Allen said. “We have to go into it thinking it’s a do-or-die game and go into it as hard as we can.”
The Big Green travels to New Haven for its final game of the season, a game that could decide whether each team makes the postseason.
“It certainly puts more pressure on us to have to win to get into that top eight, so we’re going to have to go into each of our next games like it’s a playoff game,” Hudak said.
Dartmouth hosts St. Lawrence University Friday at 7 p.m. and No. 3 Clarkson University Saturday at 4 p.m. at Thompson Arena. As the last home game of the season, Saturday’s game will mark senior night, to honor team members from the Class of 2014.
