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Harvard Hockey 2010-11

Re: Harvard Hockey 2010-11

dave1381 said:
Through three games, Harvard is third in the nation in penalty minutes per game (15 minutes per), and last in the nation in penalty kill (67%). Yikes.
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A dangerous combination to be sure and one that will sink them in games against quality opponents like Cornell. It is unusual for us to be so undisciplined and I'm wondering if it is youth and inexperience or that the refs are calling things tighter and Harvard is getting the short end of the stick. In the Brown game, there were at least a half dozen penalties for both teams that should have been called and were not. Brown eventually got two PPs in the second period, then the refs turned on them in the third and the Crimson capitalized.
 
Re: Harvard Hockey 2010-11

DC78-82 said:
Who is running the bench these days? Aren't Stone and Crowell in Maine?
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Coach Stone is definitely in Maine but I'm not sure her assistants went with her. Don't they ask other head coaches to be assistants?
 
Re: Harvard Hockey 2010-11

Skate79 said:
Coach Stone is definitely in Maine but I'm not sure her assistants went with her. Don't they ask other head coaches to be assistants?
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Well, Crowell was a Head Coach when she was named to the National team staff.
 
Re: Harvard Hockey 2010-11

Not much action on the old Harvard Women's Hockey Blog. Not surprising after the
struggles of the weekend. I guess there was a goalie change as the weekend went
along. I wish them both well in the world of "it's all your fault." I wanted to throw out
a topic for conversation. I was all for splitting Liza off from Dempsey and Buesser, now
I wonder. Maybe if Frye were playing the first line would have the critical mass to be
scoring but they don't seem to have it now. Of course we should know more after this
weekend with Pucci back. Armstrong seems to be a pretty good player. How about
moving her to center the second line and reuniting the threesome. Any thoughts?

"...but I say it's Cornell."
 
Re: Harvard Hockey 2010-11

Randy said:
Not much action on the old Harvard Women's Hockey Blog. Not surprising after the
struggles of the weekend. I guess there was a goalie change as the weekend went
along. I wish them both well in the world of "it's all your fault." I wanted to throw out
a topic for conversation. I was all for splitting Liza off from Dempsey and Buesser, now
I wonder. Maybe if Frye were playing the first line would have the critical mass to be
scoring but they don't seem to have it now. Of course we should know more after this
weekend with Pucci back. Armstrong seems to be a pretty good player. How about
moving her to center the second line and reuniting the threesome. Any thoughts?

"...but I say it's Cornell."
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Unleash the G-Mac Attack is what I say!
 
Re: Harvard Hockey 2010-11

I've seen Dempsey and Buesser play with Gina Mac on several summer occasions, and they had some super chemistry.
 
Re: What have they done to my rink?

Re: What have they done to my rink?

Right about now, the Dartmouth goalie is feeling like she should walk back to Hanover. Because she blew the last two Harvard goals, her team lost a chance to steal one in Cambridge. Harvard really escaped with this one. They were sloppy with their passing all night and had major problems getting their transition game going. Seemed like the puck bounced away from them all night or they kept lunging with their sticks to no avail. They didn't move their feet and as a result gave Dartmouth plenty of opportunities to headman the puck through the neutral zone.

The game turned in the second period when Dartmouth had a two person advantage for 51 seconds. They didn't score and the Crimson regained some momentum when Liza Ryabkina whistled a beautiful wrister over the left shoulder of the Dartmouth goalie. She didn't have a chance, it was that good of a shot. Forty seconds later, Elizabeth Parker broke down the left wing and fired a shot that slipped underneath the goalie's arm and dropped behind her into the net. Bad goal to give up late in the period. It got worse early in the third period when with Harvard shorthanded, Kate Buesser walked in alone and fired a wrist shot off the goalie's right shoulder that dropped behind her and into the net. Another gift.

The third period was back and forth although Dartmouth got a huge gift when the refs called Liza for hooking with about seven and change to play. The Green capitalized and closed the gap to 4-3 but Katherine Chute iced it with an empty netter.

In many respects, Dartmouth and Harvard mirror each other. Neither team is great; Dartmouth is certainly not a first place team by any stretch and Harvard is not the 10th best team in the country. I wouldn't put them in the top 15. Each has some talent but is a long way from an NCAA berth. I don't think either team will get there this year. Both are young on D. Goaltending is about the same although as I mentioned, the Dartmouth goalie probably feels like the trip home to Hanover is taking all night.

Harvard needs to bring their "A" game every night if they expect to compete in and out of conference. Tonight's effort just won't cut it against Cornell, Minnesota or BU.
 
Re: Harvard Hockey 2010-11

Looking at the box score, it was another disastrous day on the PK. What's happening there? It's easy to pin things on the young goalies, but Harvard teams have typically had strong PK no matter who is in net. These may be the worst PK stats I've ever seen for a team with a winning record.

I agree neither Harvard or Dartmouth are top 10 teams at the moment, but it's hard to claim neither is top 15 just yet. You'd definitely put the top 6 or 7 WCHA teams, Cornell, Mercyhurst, BU/BC above Harvard & Dartmouth, and then after that it gets murky. I don't think you can then name 4 teams who are clearly better than both, and Harvard's now No. 15 in RPI.
 
Re: Harvard Hockey 2010-11

dave1381 said:
Looking at the box score, it was another disastrous day on the PK. What's happening there? It's easy to pin things on the young goalies, but Harvard teams have typically had strong PK no matter who is in net. These may be the worst PK stats I've ever seen for a team with a winning record.

I agree neither Harvard or Dartmouth are top 10 teams at the moment, but it's hard to claim neither is top 15 just yet. You'd definitely put the top 6 or 7 WCHA teams, Cornell, Mercyhurst, BU/BC above Harvard & Dartmouth, and then after that it gets murky. I don't think you can then name 4 teams who are clearly better than both, and Harvard's now No. 15 in RPI.
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Dave, I was thinking the same thing while watching the game. It was strange because on the first PP goal Dartmouth scored, the Harvard defenders were in a box formation but left a seam that allowed a slapshot from the point to be tipped by Halenka past Joarnt. Someone should have been covering her in front but such was not the case. Yet when Harvard was down two players for 51 seconds, they did a great job keeping the Green to the outside and eventually killed off both minors. And in the third, Kate Buesser got her shortie on the same penalty that Dartmouth's Sasha Ninji scored with 3 seconds left on the infraction.

What does it all mean? I have no idea other than it was at times a very sloppy game with errant passing on both sides. Joarnt kept Harvard in it making 10 saves in the second period, several from close range. That two down penalty kill was the turning point in my opinion.
 
Re: Harvard Hockey 2010-11

Thursday night's game at New Hampshire will be broadcast on 95.3 FM and WHRB.org as part of our "Five Days of Sportsmas" coverage. Puck drops at 7, coverage starts at 6:45 pm.
 
Re: Harvard Hockey 2010-11

Just got back from the BU game tonight. It wasn't a contest despite the fact that Harvard kept it close for two periods. The Lady Terriers are just too good in too many aspects of the game. Passing, skating, stickhandling, pressing the puck, moving without the puck. I haven't seen cycling like this since the Crimson's '02-'03 team. Just amazing. Durocher has done a fantastic job with recruiting and melding this group into a very slick bunch. They should be a Frozen Four participant and they could win the whole thing. They've come a long way in seven years.

I'm really concerned that if Harvard doesn't ramp up its recruiting, sooner rather than later the Crimson will not only not be competitive with the WCHA but they will have problems beating HE teams. Harvard just doesn't have the skill or speed to match BU and they won't beat these teams unless they find better players. BU toyed with us in our own end and Poulin and Wakefield had their way with our D all night. There were moments when I started to understand how Union feels going up against the the top teams in the ECAC. That's what Harvard faces going up against the BUs of the world.

Oh well, good luck with exams, have a Merry Christmas and let's see if we can salvage something after the New Year. Won't be easy but maybe some extra practice time will help.
 
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Re: Harvard Hockey 2010-11

The Harvard Women’s Hockey Alumnae Weekend & Olympian Celebration will be held in conjunction with the Rensselaer and Union games on January 21st & 22nd. The following Olympians are scheduled to be in attendance:

Sandra Whyte ’92
AJ Mleczko ’97-99
Tammy Shewchuk ’00-01
Angela Ruggiero ’02-04
Jamie Hagerman ’03
Julie Chu ’06-07
Caitlin Cahow ’07-08
Sarah Vaillancourt ’08-09
 
Re: Harvard Hockey 2010-11

Tonight's game vs. Saint Lawrence will be on the radio and online, 95.3FM and WHRB.org if you can't make it.
 
The way it used to be?

The way it used to be?

The return of the alumnae Olympians yesterday, coupled with the never-in-doubt win over a team that is still completing the transition from Division III to Division I, led me to reflect on the differences between this year's women's hockey universe and previous years'.

Yes, it was fun, in a way, back when the number of games against competitive programs was much smaller and many games were, as they say, "not so much an athletic contest as a coronation." But do we really value those easy victories over what were then emerging programs? When you counted the seconds on the clock to calculate how many full minutes it had been since the opponents had been in possession of the puck inside Harvard's blue line? When Harvard would outscore BC 17-2 and outshoot Cornell 82-3? It was much more fun as the emerging programs emerged -- recall that string of epic Beanpot games against BC a few years ago, recall how many one-goal games there were in the 32-2 season. Perhaps the ideal situation for sports thrills is the Red Sox' 1975 World Series -- 5 of the 7 games decided by a single run, 4 of the 7 decided in the 9th inning or later.

This year a realistic goal will be to finish second to Cornell in the ECAC, both regular season and tourney, defeat Northeastern in the Beanpot opener (not much chance of an upset against BU or BC, given their current excellence), and thereby finish in the top 10 pairwise (currently they are #12). Top 10 in the nation isn't too shabby for a squad with only six juniors and seniors. After that, we'll just have to see....
 
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I wouldn't be so quick to discount the limits of this team. Sure they've been blown out by BU, BC, and Cornell, but I expect this team's learning curve is rather steep. BC especially is volatile, and I think a BC upset of BU then a Harvard upset of BC is a reasonable possibility. Beating BU or Cornell is a taller order but I wouldn't entirely dismiss the possibility.
 
Re: Harvard Hockey 2010-11

dave1381 said:
I wouldn't be so quick to discount the limits of this team. Sure they've been blown out by BU, BC, and Cornell, but I expect this team's learning curve is rather steep. BC especially is volatile, and I think a BC upset of BU then a Harvard upset of BC is a reasonable possibility. Beating BU or Cornell is a taller order but I wouldn't entirely dismiss the possibility.
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I don't know Dave. BU looked pretty strong to me both on and off the puck in the game at Bright in December. Harvard fought back from an early deficit but just couldn't stay with a more talented squad. I agree that Harvard is getting better and that learning curve is shortening for the frosh. We'll know more after Cornell visits on the last day of the regular season. Would be great to knock them off the unbeaten ranks in the ECAC if they are still unbeaten by then.
 
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