Saturday’s game against Harvard University was one that the Quinnipiac women’s ice hockey team has had circled on their schedule since it came out. The reason? Revenge.
And revenge the Bobcats got, as they managed to beat Harvard in overtime.
Last year, the Harvard Crimson eliminated the Quinnipiac Bobcats in the NCAA Tournament by a score of 5-0. That was Quinnipiac’s 11th straight loss to Harvard, a streak dating back to the 2010 season.
“There’s no question that from the beginning of the season, Harvard has been a game on our schedule that our players have been looking forward to, given what happened with them last year that they were the team that ended our season,” head coach Cassandra Turner said.
Quinnipiac came into Saturday’s game riding a 10-game point streak and the team didn’t want to see that streak end by the team that ended their previous season.
The official line up was nothing out of the oridinary—until Melissa Samoskevich stepped onto the ice. Samoskevich is the Bobcat’s highly touted freshman that normally plays on the third offensive line. But tonight, when Samoskevich hit the ice, she lined up along side defenseman Taryn Tamberg.
“I haven’t played [defense] in three years, so I had to get the feel for it a little bit, but I enjoy it, so it felt good,” Samoskevich said.
She last played defense with the USA Hockey Under-18 team. Although Samoskevich has the versatility to play both forward and defense, what led Turner to play her at defense was the team’s beat up defensive group.
On Friday night, in the team’s game against Dartmouth, captain defenseman Cydney Roesler took a stick to the wrist from a Dartmouth player and left the game in pain. Then, late in the third period, Alicia Barry took a tumble into the boards and was laying on the ice for an extended time before she was helped off the ice by trainers. Without both defensemen at 100 percent, Turner opted to play Samoskevich as a seventh defender.
“We were a little banged up and she was able to provide some relief for that,” Turner said.
Quinnipiac played a strong first period, only allowing Harvard to take five shots and tallying the game’s first goal. Emma Woods found herself on the score sheet with a pretty backhand off of a rebound.
“It’s been a few games since I’ve scored, I kind of had a monkey on my back so I feels good just to get that off,” Woods said.
Woods had the only goal in the first and second period as Harvard struggled early to find their offensive rhythm.
But Harvard found a way to tie the game when they scored mid-way through the third with a bar-down shot by Karly Heffernan to knot it at one.
Quinnipiac net-minder Sydney Rossman was locked in from there on. She kept the Bobcats in the game through the end.
The game found its way into overtime where both team had outstanding opportunities. The game-winning goal came off Samoskevich’s stick after Nicole Kosta kicked the puck to her in the crease and she buried it home. This was the Bobcats’ first win at home against the Crimson in five years.
