This weekend the women’s ice hockey team (11-13-3, 7-10-3 ECAC) faced off against Harvard (5-20-2, 3-16-1 ECAC) and Dartmouth (6-18-3, 3-14-3 ECAC). Bruno managed to grab a win against the Crimson, but conceded two late goals in Hanover to draw with the Big Green.
Because of their performance this weekend, the Bears managed to clinch their first home-ice advantage for the playoffs since the 2006-07 season.
The Bears’ away trip was all about forward Jade Iginla ’26, who contributed to five of the six goals across both games. Iginla — who leads the Bears in points, goals, shots and shooting percentage — recorded her second career hat-trick against Harvard on Friday night in Cambridge.
Iginla credited her linemates with her scoring success this weekend. “They made great plays, and I went to the right spots,” she wrote in a message to The Herald. “Our team has worked hard to become more offensive, so it's fun when it pays off.”
One of those key linemates was Ava DeCoste ’27, who assisted all three of Iginla’s goals on Friday and scored in Saturday’s match. Her contributions to the Bears’ offense led to her being named ECAC Rookie of the Week on Tuesday.
“I think what helped me be effective this weekend was not only our communication as (a) line but also as a team altogether,” DeCoste wrote in a message to The Herald. “The energy on the bench was unmatched and we were getting fired up for every little good play someone made.”
Bruno dominated the match on Friday from the first drop of the puck. Iginla notched the Bears’ first goal of the weekend within the first three minutes of play assisted by DeCoste and Miranda Calderone ’27.
Despite taking an early lead, Bruno showed no intention of slowing down against the Crimson. Harvard’s offense mustered only three shots during the first period, while the Bears unleashed a barrage of 11 shots during the first 20 minutes of play.
“I think what allowed us to outshoot Harvard on Friday night was our focus on attacking on offense,” DeCoste wrote. “We went into each period determined to outshoot our opponent and I think our ability to get screens in front of Harvard’s goalie along with quick low shots allowed us to do that.”
The Bears continued their dominance into the second period. At the 3:21 mark, Iginla notched another early goal assisted by DeCoste and India McDadi ’26. The Bears fired 11 shots again, with Harvard summoning only one shot during the period.
The Crimson came out quickly against the Bears in the third period, forcing action from goalkeeper Kaley Doyle ’24 within the first 20 seconds. Despite Crimson’s elevated pace, the Goalie of the Year candidate managed to make seven saves in the period to prevent a Harvard comeback.
Iginla fired up one final time and snatched the last goal to give the Bears a late 3-0 lead. In the eleventh minute of the match, Harvard managed to grab one consolation goal to bring the score to 3-1.
“We felt that the team played a complete game against Harvard on Friday night to secure the win,” wrote Head Coach Melanie Ruzzi in a message to The Herald. “Harvard made a push on a couple of occasions, particularly late with the goalie pulled. I thought our team defense gave up very little to close out the win.”
One key to the Bears’ success this weekend was staying out of the penalty box. The team ranks last in penalties in the ECAC and has the lowest number of penalty minutes per game.
“I think staying out of the box was in large part a product of having the puck more,” Ruzzi wrote. “As the season has progressed, it seems the officials are letting more go — allowing the women to play — so that is certainly resulting in mostly 5v5 hockey.”
But the Bears’ electric offense and lack of penalties were not enough to hold onto the lead over the Big Green.
Iginla started the first period of Saturday’s match strong, opening the scoring in the sixth minute for her fourth goal of the weekend. But Dartmouth never stopped fighting back: The Big Green fired six shots within the next four minutes after the opening goal.
The game then descended into a duel of evenly matched teams both firing shots, with neither team finding the decisive goal. After a Sam Broz ’27 shot was saved at the Dartmouth end of the ice, the Big Green set up a clinical attack, finally finding the back of the net in the 20th minute to tie the game back up.
The Bears controlled the pace of the game, outshooting the Big Green 11 to six. Bruno capitalized on the gap in shots, regaining the lead. In the 20th minute, Maya Mangiafico ’24 found the only successful shot of the period to make it a 2-1 game heading into the third. This was the only goal that neither Iginla nor DeCoste were a part of.
Entering the third period, the Bears kicked it off with what looked to be the final statement of the match as DeCoste notched her first goal of the weekend in the period’s first five minutes of play.
The game turned on its head as Dartmouth began to chip away at the Bears with shot after shot against Doyle. After dominating possession for nearly four minutes, Dartmouth reopened the game with a goal in the ninth minute.
The barrage continued as the Bears spent most of the third period mitigating the constant Big Green shots. Despite the Bears holding on as best they could, the 18th minute of the game spelled disappointment for the Bears as Dartmouth notched the game-tying goal to take the score to 3-3.
“The Tie at Dartmouth was another strong game offensively with some different players chipping in,” Ruzzi wrote. “We didn’t lock down defensively as well on Saturday in terms of our transition defense so we allowed Dartmouth back in the game to tie it late.”
The game went to overtime where the Bears outshot the Big Green 4-3, but neither team got the winner and the Bears were unable to return home with two away wins on the weekend.
“When you are up with a lead and then finish with a tie, it feels like a loss, but Dartmouth is a good team too, and they took control of the game in the last five minutes,” Iginla wrote in a message to The Herald. “We learned some lessons for the next time. Keep competing, stay focused.”
The Bears look to finish out their regular season play on Friday and Saturday at home against Colgate (26-5-1, 17-3-0 ECAC) and Cornell (15-5-0, 20-6-1 ECAC).
Dennis Carey is a Sports Editor who enjoys playing volleyball, listening to and collecting vinyl records, and poorly playing the guitar in his spare time.
