CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - The Harvard Crimson (4-8-2, 3-5-2 ECAC) will jump right back into ECAC play this weekend to begin the second half of the 2022-23 campaign.
 
The Crimson will make the ride down Storrow Drive to Fenway Park to participate in Frozen Fenway 2023 against the No. 4/4 Quinnipiac Bobcats. This will be Harvard's second appearance in Frozen Fenway, the first being in 2017 against Boston College. This will be the second matchup between the Bobcats and the Crimson with the first ending in a 5-2 victory for QU.
 
Coach Stone and her group will then travel down to Princeton, N.J. for a date with the Tigers on Saturday afternoon. This will be the first matchup of the season between the Ivy League foes and the first since
Princeton knocked off the first-seeded Crimson in the ECAC playoffs a season ago.

SCOUTING THE COMPETITION

The No. 4/4 Quinnipiac Bobcats come into the matchup after a series split with No. 2 Wisconsin last weekend. The Bobcats are 2-2 in its last four games, but its 18 total wins is still tied for best in the country. Olivia Mobley leads the team and iscurrently 11th in the country with 28 points, while Maya Labad paces the team with 12 goals. QU's offensive output is powered by an ECAC-best 37.4 shots per game.
 
Princeton will play host to the Crimson on Saturday afternoon in meeting no. 95 between the two schools on the ice. Harvard owns the advantage in the all-time series and recently has put together a 7-3-2 record against the Tigers dating back to 2018.The Ivy League foe recently swept Mercyhurst (Dec. 9-10) to go into the break with a 7-6-1 record. The Tigers currently sit in eighth place with a 3-5 record and nine points in the ECAC.
 

LAST TIME OUT 

Harvard split its final series of the first half, dropping a 5-1 contest to Clarkson before knocking off RV St. Lawrence thanks to a last-second goal from Mia Biotti. Anne Bloomer and Ellie Bayard both returned from injury in the series and scored the two other Harvard goals.
 
The split moved the Crimson's record to 4-8-2 and a 3-5-2 mark in conference play, giving them 13 points and a sixth-place spot in the standings.
 

DOMINANT ON THE DRAWS

First-line center, Kristin Della Rovere, has been dominating in the faceoff circle so far this season, posting 257 wins on the dot. Her .621 winning percentage is good for No. 5 in the country amongst qualified centers (100 or more attempts).
 
Despite playing fewer games, Della Rovere is still ranks seventh in the nation with her faceoff wins total of 257. The senior
captain has also won 10 or more draws in 13 consecutive games, the longest such streak of her career. KDR is coming off a 25 win night at St. Lawrence in her last outing.
 
As a team, Harvard ranks third in the ECAC with a .530 winning pct. on the dot. 
 

PENALTY KILL PROWESS

Harvard has been solid on the penalty-kill in 2022, holding opponents to only five goals on 40 powerplays. The mark is good for fourth-best in the conference and is No. 12 in the nation.
 
The Crimson have also made the most out of tough situations in 2022-23, netting three short-handed goals in the first half of the season.
 

IT'S ALEX PELLICCI'S NET 

Sophomore goaltender, Alex Pellicci, has started every game in net for the Crimson, giving her team excellent goaltending efforts so far in 2022-23.
 
Pellicci has saved 40-plus shots six times this season and 50-plus shots in two contests. Her 54 and 51 save games make her just the second Crimson goaltender to record two 50-plus save games in the same season in program history. Her 54 saves against Yale was also third-most all-time for a Crimson goaltender.
 
Her 515 total saves is eigth-highest in the nation despite playing fewer games than her opponents and her save percentage of .923 is good for No. 16 in the country.
 
Pellicci is on pace to make 1,100 saves in 2022, which would shatter the single season record of 927 set by Lindsay Reed in 2018-19.
 

LESTER LEADS THE NATION 

Sophomore forward Paige Lester has scored two short-handed goals this season, which is tied with seven other players for the most in the nation. Lester is also only the fourth Harvard student-athlete to accomplish the feat in the past ten years.
 
Lester's short-handed goal against UNH also served as the game-winning goal. That is only the third time the feat has been accomplished in the last ten years and the first time since Dominique Petrie '21 did it against Union in 2019-20.
 

DANGEROUS DAVIDSON ADAMS

Sophomore forward, Gabi Davidson Adams,  has started to find her rhythm as she gets more playing time in 2022-23. The winger has collected five points this season and currently ranks second on the team with four goals scored. GDA lit the lamp against Boston College (Nov. 22) after posting goals in back-to-back contests against Union (Nov. 4) and RPI (Nov. 5).
 

YOUNGEST TEAM IN THE NATION

77-percent of Crimson skaters are sophomore or first-years, giving them the highest percentage of underclasswomen in the ECAC and second highest in the nation. The only school with more is Stonehill College, who just moved up to Division I in 2022.
 
Cornell and Union are the only schools close to Harvard, as they own 70 and 68 percent marks in the undergraduate category.
 

BLOOMER IS BACK

After suffering an injury earlier this season, senior captain, Anne Bloomer, returned to the lineup in style, scoring a goal in her first game back before recording the primary assist on the game-winning goal in her second game back.
 
Bloomer has been the Crimson's most reliable offensive asset, as she leads the team with 11 points in 11 games. Bloomer has recorded points in seven of 11 games played this season which is second on the team to fellow captain Kristin Della Rovere, who has notched a point in eight games this season.
 

UP NEXT

Harvard will paly three games next week as it continues to move through the ECAC schedule. First, the Crimson will host St. Lawrence at Bright-Landry on Tuesday, January 10 for Community Day. Harvard Women's Hockey is set to welcome nearly 1,000 fifth and sixth graders to the Bright to enjoy the action against the Saints at 10:30 AM. The Crimson will then turn around to play Dartmouth on Friday, January 13 before traveling to Sacred Heart to take on the  Pioneers in a nonconference showdown. That game is set to begin on Sunday, January 15 at 3:00 PM and will air on NEC Front Row. The contest against the Pioneers will also be the first women's hockey contest inside the brand new Martire Family Arena in Bridgeport.