Box Score / Highlights / Post-Game Interview

TROY, N.Y. – The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) women's hockey team mounted a late comeback in the final period, but could not overcome an early deficit in falling to Harvard University, 4-2 in ECAC Hockey action on Friday.  The victory moves the eighth-ranked Crimson to 17-8-1 overall and 14-4-1 in league play, while the Engineers slip to 8-19-8 and 5-12-2 in the conference.
 
Despite the loss, RPI remains in a tie for the eighth and final spot in the ECAC Hockey Playoffs as Brown lost to third-ranked Cornell, while Colgate tied Yale.
 
Harvard entered the third period with a 3-0 lead, powered by a two-goal effort in the second stanza by sophomore defenseman Marissa Gedman (Framingham, MA/Noble & Greenough School).  The Crimson quickly added to their advantage in the final period as sophomore Lyndsey Fry (Chandler, AZ/Arizona Connections Academy) scored at 3:29.
 
Junior Jillian Dempsey (Winthrop, MA/The Rivers School) started the play as she digged the puck out at the near boards and chipped it to classmate Hilary Hayssen (Orono, MN/The Blake School) at the point.  A heads-up play saw Hayssen find Fry cross ice, as the sophomore buried it in at the left post past RPI netminder Kelly O'Brien (Sussex, WI/Madison Capitals).
 
Facing the 4-0 disadvantage, the Engineers continued to fight back and capitalize on a Harvard miscue to make it 4-1 at 9:42. Attempting to clear the puck behind the net, Crimson netminder Laura Bellamy (Duluth, MN/Duluth Denfield) mistakenly chipped the puck in front of the net, giving Engineers senior Laura Guillemette (Ste-Marie-de-Beauce, PQ/Notre Dame) an open shot on goal.
 
Junior assistant captain Taylor Horton (St. Thomas, ON/Bluewater Jr. Hawks) made it a 4-2 game less than two minutes later as she found the puck at the right post and buried past Bellamy at 11:15.  Senior captain Alisa Harrison (Vienna, VA/Washington Pride) was credited with the lone assist after she carried the puck in from center ice and fought to pass it up behind the net to Horton.
 
Harvard grabbed the 1-0 lead to open the game as rookie Samantha Reber (Edina, MN/Edina) collected the puck from Dempsey at the near boards, skated through the circle for a shot over O'Brien's shoulder at 14:46.
 
Gedman pushed the lead to 3-0 in the second with both of her tallies coming on the power play.  On the second goal, sophomore Kalley Armstrong (Maple, ON/St. Joan of Arc) corralled the puck at the low left circle and quickly fired it cross-ice to Gedman as she sent it in from the opposite circle.
 
Junior Kelsey Romatoski (Woodbury, MN/Academy of Holy Angels), who earned the second assist on Gedman's first tally, picked up the primary on the third Crimson goal after she intercepted the puck on a bad clear by the Engineers.  Poised at the mid-slot, the puck bounced off her stick to Gedman, who sent a quick shot through traffic and in at 9:01.
 
For Harvard, which held a 29-17 advantage in shots, Bellamy stopped 15 shots to improve to 17-8-1.  RPI was backstopped by O'Brien's 25 saves, which included 10 in the first period, five in the second and 10 in the third.
 
Rensselaer is back in action on Saturday when it hosts Dartmouth in the regular season home finale at the Houston Field House (4pm).  The Engineers will honor their six seniors in a post-game ceremony.  Harvard heads to Schenectady to face Union (4pm).