With a little over 30 seconds to play in overtime, Quinnipiac’s Kenzie Prater stood at center ice staring down Harvard goalie Beth Larcom with a chance to win the game in what was the first penalty shot attempted in the program’s history.
Prater skated in and attempted a strong shot, trying to deke Larcom and give the Bobcats the win in the extra frame. Larcom had other ideas, standing strong for the Crimson and saved the penalty shot.
Both teams returned the ice looking for that decisive goal, to no avail. After 30 seconds, both teams would accept a 2-2 tie Friday night as their fates.
“I think we grew up a lot today,” head coach Cassandra Turner said about the tie. “We had a lot of people step up and play tremendous hockey for us.”
The Bobcats struck first Friday night when they were awarded a power play with a little more than five minutes remaining in the first period.
The Bobcats’ Alicia Barry corralled the puck at the offensive blue line on and fed it to Kenzie Prater to the left of Larcom. Prater faked a shot and rifled a cross-ice pass to Kate MacKenzie. The Defensemen corralled the pass and found the back of the net for her fourth goal of the season to put Quinnipiac up 1-0.
“That’s normally my position on the power play,” MacKenzie said about her power play goal. “Cass has just emphasized us just being gritty around the net. Prater had a good heads up play and it worked out.”
Harvard came out of the first intermission and struck quickly to knot the game back up at one when their captain Sydney Daniels skated into the right face off circle to the left of Quinnipiac goalie Sydney Rossman and sniped her sixth goal of the season to tie the game at one goal apiece.
When Quinnipiac’s captain Emma Woods went down with an injury in the first period, the Bobcats turned to their other leaders for a boost on the bench.
“Just keeping positivity around,” assistant captain Meghan Turner said about stepping up. “And just making sure we play for her too when that happens… If anyone goes down, you play for them, because you know they would want you to get that win.”
Turner continued to step up for the Bobcats when she struck to give Quinnipiac a 2-1 lead. After a battle in the corner sprung a puck loose near Quinnipiac’s offensive blue line, Emma Greco kept the puck in the offensive zone with when she chipped the puck back into the corner where it found Melissa Samoskevich who played it to Meghan Turner.
Turner gathered the pass near the goal line and skated in on Larcom, scoring five-hole for her sixth goal of the season to push the Bobcats back out in front just a little less than three minutes into the second stanza.
Harvard tied things up with under four minutes to play in regulation on the power play. After the Bobcats failed to clear the zone a few times, Harvard’s Lexie Laing gathered the puck and skated into the face off circle to the right of Rossman. Skating hard, Laing found her line mate Kat Hughes in front of the net. Finding the passing come towards the tape of her stick, Hughes deflected the pass behind Rossman to tie the game at two.
The Bobcats will return to the ice tomorrow afternoon when they welcome in conference foe Dartmouth for a 4 p.m. puck drop at the High Point Solutions Arena.
