17th Annual Women's Ice Hockey Beanpot
 
Tue 02/07   Beanpot (at Harvard)
             Northeastern   24  -  Boston U.       0    6:00 pm
             Harvard         3  -  Boston C.       2    8:00 pm
 
Tue 02/14   Beanpot finals (at Harvard)
    3rd Pl   Boston C.      __  -  Boston U.      __    6:00 pm
    Champ    Harvard        __  -  Northeastern   __    8:00 pm
 
Game one:
Tuesday night at Bright in the opening game of the Women's Beanpot found
Northeastern working on their scoring touch against club-side Boston
University.  It was good to have BU back in the tournament this year.  It
might be a good idea to offer the 4th seed to the winner of the BU-MIT
match each year.  That way more Boston area teams would be involved.
 
As to scoring, the Huskies used a variety of 1-2 plays, point shots with
deflections, rebounds and the wraparound as they skated past the
Terriers.  Missi Werner had 5 goals, Kelly Tapani had 4 goals and Jessica
Lien and Jessica Wagner had 3 goals each.
 
BU has a lot of skill to develop to play on this level.  As a club team
playing against one of the leaders of the ECAC they did have an idea of
what needed to be done, but lacked the skating ability.  I thought
defender Sue Lee was their outstanding player.  She was their best skater
and provided some very good defensive coverage.  Forward Katie Frazier
was the other BU player that caught my eye.  She had a strong game and
did well to stay with Northeastern.
 
The Huskies were resting a number of players.  They did not show too many
offensive sets, but concentrated on puck control and scoring setups.  The
woman of the match was defender Missi Werner.  She scored or assisted on
many of the night's goals.  Playing relaxed and confident, she was able
to glide around the ice and make play after play.  Lien also looked very
sharp.  She played a good team oriented game and showed her attacking
skills well.  Emily Sweeney was playing on the wing and demonstrated a
good set of skills with the puck.  Kim Drews had a good night with her
elegant skating and strong passing.  Overall, not much of a game, but a
fair tune-up for this weekend's big league matches.
 
Game two:
Harvard hung on to win 3-2 over Boston College in what was a great match
for women's hockey.  It was up and down with tons of energy and clean
play by both sides.
 
At the end of the first period, after a quick start by the Harvard
Crimson, and some good counter-attacks by the Eagles of Boston College,
Harvard's Christa Calagione was able to walk in from the point and drill
her shot high.  The goal occurred on a power play.  In the second, Stacy
Kellogg (AJ Mleczko, Holly Leitzes) redirected a point shot to make the
score 2-0 Harvard.  That goal came in the last minutes of an evenly
played period.  In the final frame, AJM (Winkie Mleczko, Kellogg) seemed
to wrap up the game when she deflected in a shot from the point.
However, BC came back with a long break down the right wing.  Heidi
Anderson (Meaghan O'Neill) held on to the puck and broke in on the
Crimson net.  Her shot went in high off the goalie's shoulder pads.  A
very short time later, Kate Antos (Sue Compson) closed the gap to 3-2
when she finished off a nice setup right in front.  BC was breaking in to
the Harvard zone easily at that point and seemed ready to tie up the
game.  However the Crimson team defense got tough and Harvard held on to win.
 
The Eagles only played two lines and two defensive pairs and I think that
hurt them.  They also need more ideas of what to do with the puck once
they break into the attacking zone.  The most skillful player on the ice
last night was BC's Karen Emma.  A wonderful skater with excellent hands,
Emma came close a couple of times to scoring.  She played her heart out
for the team and provided some great back-checking.  Tobin Dominick
impressed me the most on defense with her good heads-up play.  In goal,
Kristin Gray played great.  The score would have been much higher for
Harvard if the excellent glove of Gray had not stopped them.  I thought
the line of Laura Traynham, Emma and Beckie Duvall played very well
together.  They kept looking for each other and made some marvelous break
out plays.
 
Harvard played the best I have seen them play in a long while.  The
confidence and intensity last night was extremely good.  A new experiment
last night found Leitzes double shifting: first as a defender and then
staying on the ice as a wing on the first line.  That seemed pretty smart
as it gave the first line some better skating and passing skills.
Calagione meanwhile got a taste of life on the blue line and while her
big point shot looks good (if not exactly controlled), I am waiting to
see how well she stands up to opposition forwards.  The woman of the
match was the line of Casi Walker, Kate Schutt and Diana Clark.  They
just played so well as a unit.  They may never score many goals, but they
can check-check-check.  In goal, Erin Villiotte played great until
Harvard got a 3-0 lead.  She made a wonderful save to stop Emma on a
break away.  AJM also made her presence on the ice felt with some
excellent passes to accompany her always strong shooting.  She and the
first line do not play that well together.  Some of that has been a lack
of skating skill, but some of it is looking for your mates, and making
the unpredictable play.  Still, its good to see AJM play a strong
sporting game.
 
 _____________
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 good shooting
 rhun-hungerf
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