First-year goaltender Grace Harrison recorded her first career shutout with a 24-save performance to help St. Lawrence to a 2-0 win over No. 8/9 Harvard on Friday night in Appleton Arena. It’s the first shutout loss for the Crimson this season and just the second time they’ve been kept off the board, having posted a 0-0 tie against Clarkson in October.
“That was what we needed tonight,” Head Coach Chris Wells said. “We have been very close over the past month and didn’t come out of them with wins. It was a great game going up and down the ice. We had some pucks bounce our way, blocked some shots and found a way to win.”
The Saints got a pair of first period goals from sophomores Amanda McClure and Hannah Miller, with Miller’s coming on the power play late in the frame, to give the Saints the early advantage.
“We were able to get a great bounce and our power play goal gave us a nice two-goal lead,” Wells added.
The game-winning goal came at the 8:09 mark of the first when Kennedy Marchment cycled the puck to Lydia Grauer on the left point. Grauer’s slapshot sailed wide, but deflected off McClure’s back at the side of the net and behind Crimson netminder Emerance Maschmeyer for her third of the year and a 1-0 Saints lead.
After Harvard’s Natasha Rachlin was assessed a hooking penalty with just over two minutes to play in the opening period, the Saints wasted little time finding the back of the net to push the advantage to two.
Miller’s slapshot from the left point found its way through traffic along the ice and snuck in between Maschmeyer and the near post at 17:31 with Amanda Boulier and Brook Webster assisting.
The early goals by the Saints seemed to catch the Crimson off guard and, although they had a number of veritable offensive chances late in the game, Harrison was stellar in between the pipes and St. Lawrence worked hard to back check and get bodies into shooting lanes to thwart any chances.
Maschmeyer matched Harrison with 24 saves in the contest.
With the win the Saints improve to 12-10-1 overall and 6-5-0 in the ECAC, holding steady in sixth in the conference rankings. Harvard is now 10-5-1 and 7-4-1 against conference opponents this season.
St. Lawrence returns to Appleton Arena to face Dartmouth at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.
