Home and home series against Providence next for women's ice hockey

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. Harvard women's ice hockey will take a brief break from ECAC action this weekend to take on the Providence College Friars in a home-and-home series this weekend. The Crimson (2-7-0, 1-7-0 ECAC) will first take on the Friars (6-6-2, 3-5-2 HEA) on home ice at the Bright-Landry Hockey Center on Friday night before taking on the quick trip to Providence for a Saturday game at Schneider Arena. Harvard will look to get back in the win column against the Friars when it faces the regional foe for the first time since the 2012-13 season.

What you need to know

Fourth annual teddy bear toss

Harvard Hockey will host the 4th annual Teddy Bear Toss games leading up to the holidays. During the events, fans are encouraged to bring teddy bears and other stuffed animals to these games, which will be thrown onto the ice and donated to local children's hospitals.

The initiative involves fans bringing stuffed animals to the Bright-Landry Hockey Center and throwing them onto the ice at a designated time so they can be collected for donation. All collections will then be donated to pediatric cancer patients at Harvard-affiliated hospitals during the holidays!

Over the past three years, more than 750 have been collected and given to patients at Massachusetts General Hospital for Children, Beth-Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Newton-Wellesley Hospital and Mass Eye and Ear

Last timeout

Harvard is coming off a pair of losses this weekend against the No. 10 Cornell Big Red and the No. 5 Colgate Raiders. The Crimson went up against both nationally ranked opponents but were held back in the highly contested games. The team battled in both matches, ultimately falling 5-1 to the Big Red and 3-0 to the Raiders.

Paige Lester scored the Crimson goal against Cornell and Ainsley Tuffy put together some impressive efforts this weekend, first making 16 saves and not allowing a goal against Cornell before making 24 saves and allowing just two goals against Colgate.

Series History against Providence

The Crimson and the Friars will renew their regional rivalry this weekend for the first time since 2012-13. Harvard owns a 16-22-3 record against Providence in the all-time series, but is undefeated with an 8-0-1 record in the past nine matchups dating back to 2002-03.

Providence Scouting

The Friars come into the series against the Crimson with a 6-6-2 record and a 3-5-2 mark in conference play. The Friars drew the University of Vermont twice last weekend, giving them a 1-3-2 record over the past three weekends.

The group has scored 2.79 goals per match so far this season, which puts it in 13th place^e in the country and third in the HEA. Sophomore Audrey Knapp leads the group with seven goals this season, while five other skaters have four or more goals this year. One of Providence's greatest strengths is puck movement, as the team has recorded the sixth-most assists in the country with 76 this season.

Senior Hope Walinski has started nine games this season and leads the goaltending for the Friars. She has a 0.923 save percentage and 1.98 goals against average, which ranks 17th^e and 15^e in the nation.

Against the Hockey East

The Crimson has had success against Hockey East foes under Landry Family Head Coach for Harvard Women's Ice Hockey, Laura Bellamy, since taking the helm of the program before last season. In five career games against HEA opponents, Bellamy owns a 2-2-1 record, including a shootout victory over No. 13 Boston College in the 2023 Beanpot Tournament.

Harvard opened the season with an upset win over No. 8 Connecticut at the Bright-Landry Hockey Center, Bellamy's highest win in her young head coaching career.

In Tuf

First-year goalkeeper Ainsley Tuffy has played through four career games, with a .949 save percentage and 1.71 goals against average. The savings rate is the fourth highest nationally. Tuffystymied a surging No. 7 Quinnipiac team last Saturday in her second career start, making 40 saves and holding the team to just one goal. It marked the first time a Harvard freshman goalie made 40 or more saves in a game since the 2017-18 season, when Lindsay Reed accomplished the feat, also in her second career start.

Blocking shots

One of the Crimson's strengths defensively this season has been his ability to get into shooting lanes and block shots. As a team, the Crimson has already blocked 131 shots, an average of 18.7 per game. That total is the second-highest in the NCAA and leads the ECAC.

Mia Biotti leads the team with 17 blocked shots and is sixth in the ECAC with 1.9 blocked shots per game. Maria Pape has 16 blocked shots per year and Kaley McDonald is right behind with 15 blocks so far. First year forward Scout Oudemool has also contributed with 14 blocked shots and is currently the fifth-highest forward with 1.6 blocked shots per game nationally.

Strength of the scheme

These meetings with the Friars will mark only the fourth and fifth time the Crimson have not played a ranked opponent this season. Harvard's strong schedule currently ranks 10th in the nation and has featured six games against ranked foes in just nine games. It is also the second-toughest schedule in the ECAC in terms of opponent winning percentage.

Next up

Harvard has next weekend off before hitting the road again in the final weekend of the first half of the season. The Crimson will make the trip to the North Country to take on Clarkson and St. Lawrence (Dec. 6-7) before the finals and holiday break.