It was another winless weekend for the women’s hockey team — their eighth this season — as they fell to Dartmouth and Harvard. With these two losses, Brown (5-20-0, 2-16-0 ECAC) will finish the regular season without a victory away from home, as the squad amassed an unprecedented 0-13-0 road record. Additionally, the combination of a tie by Union (4-20-6, 1-14-3) and a zero-point weekend for the Bears places Bruno in sole possession of last place in the conference.
Dartmouth 4, Brown 3
Bruno was not able to overcome an early 3-0 deficit against the Big Green (11-11-2, 7-9-2) and ultimately fell short despite a spirited comeback effort. Dartmouth started the game with three unanswered goals between the first and second periods, and it seemed as though the game would end the way every road contest has gone for Brown: a blowout defeat. But Monica Elvin ’17 made 31 saves throughout the night and would allow only one more goal for the rest of the game, giving the Bears life.
“Our team is full of relentless, hard workers,” said Maddie Woo ’17. “We also cleaned up our breakouts and got a lot of shots on net.”
Unlike many other games this season, the players were able to sustain consistent pressure on the opposition’s net. In many of the losses thus far, the team has suffered due to its inability to rack up shots on target. In this game, the team finished with 29 attempts on frame, its highest total in 10 games.
The three-headed attacking beast of assistant captain Kaitlyn Keon ’15, Sarah Robson ’15 and Sam Donovan ’18 led the offense all night. The attempted comeback began with less than two minutes remaining in the second period, when the Bears scored twice to pull within one at 3-2.
Keon — who leads the team in goals and points — struck first on assists from Donovan and Robson at the 18:11 mark. Donovan built on the momentum a minute later by netting a goal that was assisted by Robson and Keon. The trio has the top three point totals on the squad and accounted for all the points of the night: Keon and Robson recorded a goal and two assists each, while Donovan racked up a goal and an assist.
Dartmouth replied in the third period with a goal by junior Laura Stacey, one of its top scorers. Robson pulled the Bears back within one with a shorthanded goal, her team-leading second of the season. That was the last goal the Bears would score, as the team’s comeback stalled and the game ended at 4-3.
“We kept working hard, tightening up defensively and creating quality offensive chances,” said Janice Yang ’15. “But we need to make sure we do all the little things right and capitalize on our scoring opportunities.”
No. 5 Harvard 7, Brown 1
Mary Parker, Harvard’s top point scorer, led the way for the Crimson (18-4-2, 14-3-1) with a hat trick and an assist, as the Bears suffered another six-goal blowout at the hands of their longtime Ivy and ECAC foe. Harvard is at or near the top of many of the conference’s statistical categories, including goals per game, with 3.78, and goals against average, with 1.21.
Harvard notched two goals in the first three minutes of the game, as Parker and Miye D’Oench scored within 51 seconds of one another. Though the Crimson peppered the net with 15 shots in the first, goaltender Julianne Landry ’18 was able to turn away 13 of those to keep the lead within reach. Yang netted her fifth goal of the season in the dying minutes of the first period to cut the deficit in half.
“We started off strong in the first period, putting ourselves in a good position,” Woo said. The second period was a completely different story: The Bears collapsed, allowing four goals on 11 shots. Three of these goals came in an unrelenting two-minute stretch toward the end of the period. The number one power play team in the conference began its assault with another tally by D’Oench during a man-advantage situation. Parker added two more in a 36-second span to finish both her hat trick and the game. There was no coming back for the Bears this time, especially against the top team in the ECAC. Bruno’s inability to generate offense reared its ugly head, as the team was bested 46-14 in shots.
“Moving forward, we still need to work on playing consistently throughout the whole game and keeping everyone on the same page,” Woo said.
Brown returns home to Meehan Auditorium next weekend to face Union and Rensselaer (5-21-4, 3-14-1). It will be an important set of games for the Bears as they look to come away with some points in an effort to escape the conference basement.