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Harvard Women's Hockey 2011-2012: Taking the Next Step

Re: Harvard Women's Hockey 2011-2012: Taking the Next Step

Skate79 said:
1. The team is pretty much where I thought they would be. In the top four in their conference while not really competitive against top teams such as Minnesota and Cornell. They lack scoring punch from the second and third lines although Elizabeth Parker is showing some promise. Bellamy has played well and is a key to any success they will enjoy going forward.
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I agree with most of the content here, though I wouldn't have chosen the words "not really competitive" performance against Cornell/Minnesota. They competed and played closer against these teams than most, though granted the Cornell-Harvard game was with shorthanded rosters. It's fair to say they might not be able to compete for 60 minutes against these teams for the reasons you mentioned, and it's fair to say that it's unlikely at this point Harvard would beat either team this year -- but I would hope this team with all its youth had a steeper learning curve than the rest.

2. The lack of depth hurts them against the top teams. You can see it especially at the end of close games. Hopefully they will have a deeper recruiting class coming in next year.
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Sure, and it's hard to have a deeper team with no senior class. Even an average recruiting class would allow this team to be deeper.

3. I think they will finish somewhere between 2 and 4 in the conference and will be a better team by the end of the season. Not good enough to go to the NCAAs but they'll put a scare into some of their conference brethren. Next year will be different.
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Others have commented on this. You might be right that Harvard won't be one of the best 8 teams in the country at the end of the year, but Harvard may still make NCAAs because the system tends to prevent more than 3 WCHA teams from making the cut, and because BU has struggled.
 
Re: Harvard Women's Hockey 2011-2012: Taking the Next Step

OnMAA said:
Was that adjective really necessary. :( :mad:
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Okay maybe it was a bit harsh but what can you say about UNH? Typically a very strong program but this year...? Sorry, I just don't think either PC or UNH are very good.
 
Re: Harvard Women's Hockey 2011-2012: Taking the Next Step

OnMAA said:
Right now would not bet against them. Although I picked Quinny 2 and Harvard 3 at the start of the season, looks to me based on results todate, that Harvard is the more likely team to finish in the two spot, giving them home advantage in the ECAC semis.

It would be surprising if there are not two teams from the ECAC in the NCAA's, and right now Harvard is the second best team from the ECAC results wise in the important games towards that effect.
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All good points but we need to beat Cornell at Bright and at least win the Beanpot to have real consideration. Losing both games to Minnesota hurt and I'm not sure we'll have enough based on the rest of our schedule unless we win the aforementioned games. True BU is struggling but I don't expect that to last. Beating them would be a good first step.

Q-Pac is a very good team and it wouldn't surprise me if they finished ahead of Harvard. We'll see what happens. The competitive balance is great and maybe this will help some team knock off Cornell in an upset.
 
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Re: Harvard Women's Hockey 2011-2012: Taking the Next Step

I agree beating BU is almost essential for Harvard to make NCAAs since some of Harvard's competition has already done so.

I don't agree winning the Beanpot and beating Cornell is essential, though of course winning either is extremely helpful. If Harvard wins out except for against BC and Cornell, they'd still be in good shape to make the tournament.

A lot depends on whether the ECAC gets more teams in the top 12. It's very good for Harvard's propspects if Clarkson stays in the top 12, since Harvard has beaten them twice.
 
Re: Harvard Women's Hockey 2011-2012: Taking the Next Step

dave1381 said:
I agree beating BU is almost essential for Harvard to make NCAAs since some of Harvard's competition has already done so.

I don't agree winning the Beanpot and beating Cornell is essential, though of course winning either is extremely helpful. If Harvard wins out except for against BC and Cornell, they'd still be in good shape to make the tournament.

A lot depends on whether the ECAC gets more teams in the top 12. It's very good for Harvard's propspects if Clarkson stays in the top 12, since Harvard has beaten them twice.
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No argument with any of your points Dave. I just think that beating BU and Cornell would go a long way towards ensuring a shot an NCAA bid in case the Crimson don't go deep into the ECAC playoffs. We know Cornell is going to make it. I'm not worried so much about other ECAC teams making into the Top 12 because the Crimson still have shots at Top Ten teams to make their case.
 
Re: Harvard Women's Hockey 2011-2012: Taking the Next Step

Well there isn't much good you can say about tonight's game. Harvard had real problems finishing all night. They should have won by 5 or 6 goals. Union's goalie was very good but that doesn't excuse missing the net on so many opportunities. It was like Harvard wanted to show off their skating prowess at the expense of burying their chances. They won't beat many teams playing the way they did tonight.

On a brighter note, Alyssa Baumgartner played and scored her first goal of the season on a screened floater from just outside the right faceoff circle. Good to see her on the ice. She played hard all night although you could see some rust in her game which is understandable. Bellamy had a quiet night save for a couple of close in shots. The D played pretty well with good breakout passes. Union can skate but is lacking in scoring touch. Not sure if the Harvard troika of Asano, Chu and Boe can do the job but we'll see.
 
Re: Harvard Women's Hockey 2011-2012: Taking the Next Step

While continuing to show they're not the same team without Pucci, the players deserve credit for their performance today: down three-to-nothing in the final five minutes of the second period with Pucci out and Reber taken to the locker room, they calmly scored five unanswered goals. They never seemed flustered. Dempsey was a tornado forechecking and they moved the puck around nicely in the offensive end at even strength as well as on the PP.
 
Re: Harvard Women's Hockey 2011-2012: Taking the Next Step

Watson Rink said:
While continuing to show they're not the same team without Pucci, the players deserve credit for their performance today: down three-to-nothing in the final five minutes of the second period with Pucci out and Reber taken to the locker room, they calmly scored five unanswered goals. They never seemed flustered. Dempsey was a tornado forechecking and they moved the puck around nicely in the offensive end at even strength as well as on the PP.
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No question they deserve credit; my only worry is that Pucci is out for an extended period of time, maybe even the rest of the season. They can't survive without her. RPI isn't very good this year and to go down by three goals at home against them doesn't say much for the Crimson. The Crimson's remaining schedule has Cornell, Quinnipiac and Princeton coming to Bright. Right now, I'm not sure I would favor Harvard against anyone unless they can capitalize offensively. Their D and goaltending are good enough to win but they will need more from the forwards.
 
Re: Harvard Women's Hockey 2011-2012: ECAC Standings

Re: Harvard Women's Hockey 2011-2012: ECAC Standings

Pucci played yesterday and it certainly was beneficial. A bonus benefit was that with a full six-pack on D, they had the luxury of playing a D (Romatowski) upfront on the power play. Shades of Caitlin Cahow and Ashley Banfield! Wonder whether they would play a D as the ninth F if another F got injured or ill, and if so, which one?

Looking at the ECAC standings, it projects as a very close race for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th spots. H, D, Clarkson and StL all have two games in hand on Q and Pr, and H and D have the easiest schedules: rematches against Q and Pr and then 6 games against the 5 closely aligned second-division teams. Since the earlier H/D vs Q/Pr matches were all so close, you might expect H and D to each get a couple points out of the weekend, and if each swept the second-division teams, then H might end up with 31 points and D with 30 (in other words, D has to do better than H against Q/Pr in order to catch up with or surpass H). Q has a much tougher schedule: H, D, Clarkson and StL, and only two second-division opponents. If they get 4 points against the 4 first-division clubs and sweep the second division, they project to wind up with 30 points. Clarkson and StL both have to play Cornell twice, as well as Q/Pr, so they would need to sweep Q/Pr, or get a point off Cornell, to get as many as 30 points; not very likely. Pr has the impressive statistic of having a zero goal differential against H, D and Cornell (and having defeated NU) but is mathematically eliminated from registering more than 28 points.

All the foregoing may be of limited importance, since H, D and Q are likely to draw some combination of Clarkson, StL and Pr in the quarterfinals and all three of those squads have shown that they will be tough opponents; but bragging rights are always fun.
 
Re: Harvard Women's Hockey 2011-2012: ECAC Standings

Re: Harvard Women's Hockey 2011-2012: ECAC Standings

Watson Rink said:
Pucci played yesterday and it certainly was beneficial. A bonus benefit was that with a full six-pack on D, they had the luxury of playing a D (Romatowski) upfront on the power play. Shades of Caitlin Cahow and Ashley Banfield! Wonder whether they would play a D as the ninth F if another F got injured or ill, and if so, which one?

Looking at the ECAC standings, it projects as a very close race for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th spots. H, D, Clarkson and StL all have two games in hand on Q and Pr, and H and D have the easiest schedules: rematches against Q and Pr and then 6 games against the 5 closely aligned second-division teams. Since the earlier H/D vs Q/Pr matches were all so close, you might expect H and D to each get a couple points out of the weekend, and if each swept the second-division teams, then H might end up with 31 points and D with 30 (in other words, D has to do better than H against Q/Pr in order to catch up with or surpass H). Q has a much tougher schedule: H, D, Clarkson and StL, and only two second-division opponents. If they get 4 points against the 4 first-division clubs and sweep the second division, they project to wind up with 30 points. Clarkson and StL both have to play Cornell twice, as well as Q/Pr, so they would need to sweep Q/Pr, or get a point off Cornell, to get as many as 30 points; not very likely. Pr has the impressive statistic of having a zero goal differential against H, D and Cornell (and having defeated NU) but is mathematically eliminated from registering more than 28 points.

All the foregoing may be of limited importance, since H, D and Q are likely to draw some combination of Clarkson, StL and Pr in the quarterfinals and all three of those squads have shown that they will be tough opponents; but bragging rights are always fun.
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It is still important to place in the two or three spot, as you would then not face Cornell until the Final, which IIRC is a one game showdown. Anything can happen in a one game winner takes all.
 
Re: Harvard Women's Hockey 2011-2012: Taking the Next Step

I guess the formula for Harvard's offensive success is to play their games in the state of Connecticut. Combined totals for beating UConn and Yale: 16-0. Not bad. :)

Looking ahead, next weekend is the biggie that will most likely determine whether or not Harvard gets home ice. As Watson has pointed out, it is really close among Harvard, Dartmouth, Q-Pac, Clarkson and Princeton. Finishing second would net us a semifinal home game although that didn't help us last season. If we sweep Q-Pac and Princeton next weekend, we control our own destiny because all that is left is RPI and Union on the road and Yale and Brown at home. We should take at least 3 of 4 out of those four remaining games; hence, next weekend will determine how badly we need those games.
 
Re: Harvard Women's Hockey 2011-2012: Taking the Next Step

I have to amend my prior post because I forgot about Quinnipiac. We played them to a 3-3 draw earlier this month. So the totals should read 19-3 in the State of CT. My bad. Still, pretty impressive totals.
 
Re: Harvard Women's Hockey 2011-2012: ECAC Standings

Re: Harvard Women's Hockey 2011-2012: ECAC Standings

Watson Rink said:
......Clarkson and StL both have to play Cornell twice, as well as Q/Pr, so they would need to sweep Q/Pr, or get a point off Cornell,
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Clarkson gets 2 points from Cornell today winning 5-3 at Cheel. :)
 
Re: Harvard Women's Hockey 2011-2012: ECAC Standings

Re: Harvard Women's Hockey 2011-2012: ECAC Standings

Hey Vic, not sure but were you wanting to post on a different thread? ;)
 
Re: Harvard Women's Hockey 2011-2012: Taking the Next Step

What got into Kaitlin Spurling this weekend?? Wow, some serious offensive mojo. Hopefully she keeps it going to take the heat off of Dempsey, Fry and MacDonald as we head into the stretch drive for home ice.
 
Re: Harvard Women's Hockey 2011-2012: Taking the Next Step

Skate79 said:
What got into Kaitlin Spurling this weekend?? Wow, some serious offensive mojo. Hopefully she keeps it going to take the heat off of Dempsey, Fry and MacDonald as we head into the stretch drive for home ice.
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Huge week coming up for the Crimson on two fronts.

With the games they made up on Quinnipiac, they are now in 2nd place in the ECAC, with a hungry pack of wolves just 1 point behind.

Havard first faces a rejuvenated BU in the beanpot followed by the Bob Cats in league play. That first game is crucial for both teams in the NCAA rankings, and the winner of that second game will have a gain a foothold on second place in the ECAC.
 
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