Game four: Hockey, hockey, hockey, hockey weekend. Bright Hockey Ctr.
 
In what was easily the best game of the weekend, Northeastern managed
to pull out an overtime victory on Sunday afternoon.  Harvard played a
wonderful game, leading the match by 2-0 going into the third.  But
first year coach Cheryl Murtagh has the Huskies playing a much sharper
and more positive game this year.  In the end, they earned their win.
 
In the first period, Harvard got a power play goal when Kim Landry
(Jo-anne Alissi) got a perfect centering pass on her stick, and she
wristed it home.  Northeastern had been putting on alot of pressure.
The line of Jeanine Sobek, Shelley Looney and Maureen Robinson were
playing great.  They zipped around nicely.  The goal however seemed
to deflate the Huskies a little.
 
In the second period the action was more up and down hockey.  The
Crimson really wanted a second goal badly.  Northeastern supporters
would complain that the refs. were somewhat unfair to them in that
period, and I would agree.  Harvard went ahead further on a power
play goal by Francie Walton (Landry, Alissi).  The goal resulted from
a marvelous end to end rush by Alissi.  The final tip came from a
scramble in front of the net.
 
The third period was tense.  Northeastern applied the pressure, and
gradually Harvard was less able to break out of its own zone.  Sobek
(Looney) opened the Huskies come back with a blast from just inside
the blue line, that dinged in off the post.  That goal spelled the
start of Northeasterns' win.  The confidence levels changed
dramatically for both teams.  Looney (Kim Haman) tied the game up
on a nice pass from the corner, which she drilled from the right
slot.  In overtime Robinson (Laura Bennion, Rayanne Conway) won the
match when she deflected a good shot from the left point, into the
net.
 
Northeastern are playing pretty good hockey.  They don't have the
talent of Providence, but I can believe their Beanpot final with
Brown must have been a great game (Brown 4-3).  One factor that I
thought was unfair this weekend was the question of the length of
the games.  It appears the home coach decides if its a 15 or 18
minute period game.  For Cornell, Harvard went with 18 minutes
to make sure they had enough time to score.  Against powerhouse
Northeastern, Harvard went for the shorter 15 minutes so they would
not get too tired.  That seems very unfair to me.  The Northeastern
coach did not like it, and I see why.
 
Harvard played their best hockey this weekend.  Erin Villiotte played
a wonderful match in goal to hold off Northeastern as long as they did.
Joey Alissi was very strong in breaking the puck out of her zone and
creating scoring chances.  Megan Hall, Diana Clark and Sara Simmons
continued their excellent play.  That line broke out and had several
scoring plays.  Holly Leitzes and Winkie Mleczko provided steady
defense with good quality break out passes.  The Crimson Women played
a wonderful game.  That matched with Northeasterns' skillful play made
this game the most enjoyable of the weekend.
 
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 good shooting
 rhun
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