The No. 7 seed St. Lawrence University women's hockey team dropped game one of its best-of-three series to No. 2 Harvard University on Friday afternoon by the score of 6-1 in Cambridge, MA.  The Crimson sprinted out to a 4-0 lead in the opening 13:00 minutes, while Jillian Dempsey scored two goals for the home team.

Harvard improves to 16-10-4 on the year, while the Saints fall to 16-17-2 and must win Saturday's game to force a series-deciding game three.

The home team needed only 1:28 to score the opening goal and put Harvard on top 1-0.  Lyndsey Fry sent a slap shot that beat St. Lawrence goaltender Maxie Weisz, but the puck hit the cross bar.  However, the ricochet bounced directly to Dempsey at the top of the crease and she finished the play for her 11th goal of the season.

Harvard would strike again at 6:55, when Kate Buesser snapped an outlet pass behind the St. Lawrence defense to a cutting Josephine Pucci who moved in on a breakaway try on Weisz.  Pucci sniped a wrist shot past Weisz into the upper corner of the net for a 2-0 Crimson lead.

The struggles continued for the Saints midway through the period, as Elizabeth Parker and Whitney Kennedy scored only 1:09 apart to put the home team on top 4-0.  Alisa Baumgartner's wrist shot from inside the blue line was re-directed by Parker past Weisz for her third goal of the year at 11:22.  Kennedy then finished off a beautiful tic-tac-toe passing play to give her team the four-goal cushion at 12:31.

Despite being outshot 14-7 in the first, St. Lawrence would crack the scoreboard at 19:14 to cut its deficit to 4-1.  Sophomore Kelly Sabatine sent a pass to classmate Brooke Fernandez who laced a shot on Harvard netminder Laura Bellamy.  Though Bellamy made the initial save, junior Vanessa Emond was there to collect the rebound and score her 12th goal of the year to cap the first period scoring.

The goal seemed to give the Scarlet and Brown momentum into the second period, as they outplayed the Crimson and had several chances to cut into Harvard's lead.  Though they outshot their opponents 14-8 in the frame, St. Lawrence couldn't capitalize on their chances including a bid for Emond with Bellamy out of position.  Bellamy's 14 second-period saves kept her team's three goal lead intact headed to the third period.

Harvard would put the game away with an insurance goal at 12:45 to take a 5-1 lead.  Liza Ryabkina sent a great crossing pass to the far post to a wide-open Dempsey.  Dempsey cut through the crease past Weisz and back-handed the puck into the net for her second goal of the season.  Katharine Chute would cap the game scoring with an empty net goal at 15:51 to bring the game its final of 6-1.

The Crimson closed with a narrow 31-30 advantage in shots on goal, while the Saints had the lone power play tally of the game (1-for-8).  Harvard was 0-for-6 with the extra skater.  Weisz closed with 24 saves in the game, while senior Nicolien Bongaerts made a stop on a breakaway try in 4:09 of action.  Bellamy earned the win with a 29-save performance.

St. Lawrence will look to even the series tomorrow, Saturday, February 26 when the puck drops at 3:00pm.