Season Ends in Cambridge

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The 2014-15 season was marked by a number of memorable accomplishments for the Yale women's ice hockey team, but on Saturday afternoon in game two of the ECAC Hockey quarterfinals the Bulldogs came up against a team that was on a roll -- and that ultimately brought Yale's season to an end. No. 4 Harvard improved to 8-1-1 in last 10 games by taking a 3-0 shutout win over the Bulldogs. The Crimson outshot Yale 37-24, overcoming a 34-save effort by senior goaltender Jaimie Leonoff for the victory.

As the No. 2 seed and the ECAC Hockey Co-Champions, the Crimson had taken game one against the Bulldogs Friday afternoon, 2-1.  Harvard (23-5-3, 16-4-2 ECAC Hockey), still without forward Hillary Crowe (fourth on the team in goals with 10) after an injury she suffered at the end of the regular season, also played without the team's leading scorer, forward Mary Parker (14-18-32), on Saturday. The Crimson still had enough firepower to jump out to a 2-0 lead in the first period. At 3:28, forward Lyndsey Fry sent the puck into the crease from the side of the net, and forward Sydney Daniels finished the play with an acrobatic, leaping goal to make it 1-0.

"They have plenty of depth, enough depth to cover for not having those two players," said Joakim Flygh, Yale's head coach. "They were really good in transition, and put a lot of pressure on us."

A minute after that goal, Harvard goalie Emerance Maschmeyer made a great glove save on junior forward Jamie Haddad's one-timer off a rebound. The Crimson then extended the lead to 2-0 on a goal by forward Samantha Reber at 14:27.

"We just had mental mistakes that cost us big-time in the first period," said Flygh. "You can't do that against such a great team."

A multiple-goal lead has been a rarity in the quarterfinal playoff meetings between these teams the past two years. Counting last season's epic three-game battle (won by the Crimson) and the first game of this series, the teams entered Saturday having played 301:34 of playoff hockey against each other in the last two seasons -- and they were either tied or within one goal of each other for all but 48:40 of that span.

Sophomore forward Phoebe Staenz drew a penalty on the Crimson with 2:20 left in the first period to give Yale its first power play of the series. But Maschmeyer denied Staenz' attempt from in front off a feed from junior forward Hanna Åström, then covered up a one-timer from junior defenseman Kate Martini just before the penalty expired.

Harvard extended the lead to 3-0 in the second on a great individual effort by defenseman Josephine Pucci, one of the Crimson's three U.S. Olympians from the 2014 Games. She took a turnover in the Harvard zone and showed great speed as she brought the puck up the left wing and then skated in to slip it past Leonoff at the 7:20 mark.

Leonoff had to deny a pair of breakaways for Crimson forward Karly Heffernan to keep the game close in the second. Shortly after Heffernan's second attempt came up empty, Leonoff and the Bulldogs killed off their first penalty of the game -- and even got a nice short-handed scoring chance from Staenz thanks to some aggressive fore-checking.

Harvard got another power play in the final minute of the second, but a shot by forward Lexie Laing hit the crossbar and ricocheted high, and Leonoff then covered the puck with three seconds left in the period after a save on defenseman Abbey Frazer. The Crimson lead was 3-0 heading into the third.

With 17:45 left in the game Yale (15-15-1, 12-10-0 ECAC Hockey) got another power play, but Maschmeyer made a kick save on a blast by sophomore defenseman Taylor Marchin. Another penalty on the Crimson gave Yale a brief 5-on-3, but the Crimson killed that one off and another kick save by Maschmeyer denied freshman forward Eden Murray with Yale's advantage back to 5-on-4. A penalty on the Bulldogs then brought that power play to an early end.

Maschmeyer covered up the puck after sophomore forward Gretchen Tarrant followed up on the rebound from a Grade-A chance for senior forward Stephanie Mock with 9:10 to play. That wound up being one of Yale's last good scoring opportunities.

A penalty on the Bulldogs with 7:46 left in the game put Yale's penalty killing unit to the test again. Three saves by Leonoff helped kill off that penalty. She was then pulled for an extra attacker in the final four minutes of the game, but the Bulldogs could not break up Maschmeyer's shutout bid. This was her third whitewash of the year, and Harvard had now gone 14 straight games without allowing more than two goals.

"Their D corps is as good as they come, and might be the best in the country," said Flygh. "I give them all the credit in the world for being able to slow us down."

The game marked the last time in Yale blue for Leonoff, Mock, defenseman Aurora Kennedy, defenseman Madi Murray and forward Jackie Raines. Those five have seen the program undergo dramatic changes during their time in New Haven; the Bulldogs were 1-27-1 in 2011-12 but finished this season with the second-most wins in school history (15). This year marked the Bulldogs' second straight ECAC Hockey playoff appearance after a five-year absence. The team also finished with 93 goals, the second-most in school history.

"You look at where the seniors started, with a 1-27-1 season," said Flygh. "It was no easy task to turn that around and find a way to become a playoff team, but they did it. We've come a long way as a program with things like our work ethic, and they have helped change the culture. The foundation has been laid in place, and we now have to keep refining it."

Harvard advances to play in the ECAC Hockey semifinals next weekend. All three quarterfinal series ended in two games Saturday, so the semifinal matchups will be Harvard vs. No. 6 Quinnipiac (the third seed) and top-seeded No. 5 Clarkson vs. Cornell (the fourth seed).

Yale, meanwhile, turns its attention to 2015-16 while building on the accomplishments of 2014-15.

"We've got to look to try to have a better regular season," said Flygh. "You look at all the playoff series this year -- the home teams won. That's the next step for us: be in the top four in ECAC Hockey and have home ice advantage for the quarterfinals."

Report by Sam Rubin '95 (sam.rubin@yale.edu), Yale Sports Publicity