Mar 20, 2008

HARVARD 3, CLARKSON 0

No. 1 Crimson roll into ECAC title game

By Barbara Matson, Globe Staff  |  March 9, 2008

Liza Ryabkina had to take the long way to get to Harvard. A native of Ukraine, Ryabkina first visited Boston three years ago, when she was playing for Druzhba '87, an elite boys' team. Eager to play more hockey - there is no women's team in Ukraine - and to get an education, she returned to Massachusetts and spent two years at the Berkshire School before moving on to Harvard.

Now, her English is fluent, her schoolwork is solid (she's one of 18 Harvard players on the ECAC All-Academic team), and her game flows. The route she took to the Clarkson net in yesterday's ECAC semifinals at the Bright Center was direct, though hardly simple.

Ryabkina picked off the puck in Clarkson's zone, spun and stepped between a pair of defenders, then slid a backhander under the pads of bewildered goalie Eve Grandmont-Berube.

Ryabkina's unassisted goal midway through the third period punctuated a 3-0 victory over ninth-ranked Clarkson (24-9-5) for the Crimson (30-1-0), ranked No. 1 in the nation. Harvard will face No. 6 St. Lawrence (28-6-1) today at 2 p.m. in the championship game. The Saints rallied from a 1-0 deficit to score three power-play goals as they beat No. 8 Dartmouth, 3-1, in the second semifinal.

Harvard goalie Christina Kessler, who made 13 saves to earn her NCAA season-record 12th shutout while tying Ali Boe's Harvard career mark at 15, later looked skeptically at her teammate as Ryabkina began to modestly describe her goal. "She does that every time we have a showcase - a breakaway challenge," said Kessler.

Ryabkina, who is 20, was glad to get the goal, as she had been sent to the penalty box three times for her aggressive play.

"I can't really describe it because I was kind of surprised myself," Ryabkina said, "but I just swept through the middle, faked the shot, and put it between the goalie's legs. I mean, it was kind of tough after having three penalties in a row."

The Golden Knights could do nothing with their power-play opportunities, going 0 for 5 and getting only five shots.

"I played a totally different style of game [growing up]," Ryabkina said. "It was all individual, it was just grab the puck and go beat out everybody. It was never try to pass it or create the play, so it was a very tough transition."

Ryabkina gave the crowd of 1,727 a look at Harvard's future. So did Katharine Chute, a freshman who got the Crimson on the board at 18:11 of the second period, beating Grandmont-Berube with a wrist shot, and Walpole's Leanne Coskren, another first-year player and regular on defense who helped Harvard's penalty-killing unit boost its success rate to 91.3 percent.

Harvard got its only power play early in the third and moved quickly, cycling through the Clarkson zone so quickly it was impossible to tell how the Crimson were setting up. Kathryn Farni fired a slap shot from the left point, and Caitlin Cahow came in from the right for a tip. When Grandmont-Berube stopped that, Jenny Brine came in from the left to slam it home.

"They are going to wear you down," said Clarkson coach Rick Seeley. "They're a strong defensive team, they're a great skating team, they keep coming at you, and we knew it was an uphill challenge."