BOSTON, Mass – As Fenway Park turned into a snow globe, No. 3/4 Quinnipiac women’s ice hockey battled Harvard through all conditions at the ballpark Friday, grinding out a 3-1 win over its ECAC Hockey foe in the first game of the 2023 Frozen Fenway series.

An onslaught of snow throughout the game made for difficult conditions on the ice. Pucks took strange bounces, or just flat-out stopped in the snow. Players fell every which way and passes struggled to connect, but the experience was worth it all.

“What a day,” Bobcats’ head coach Cass Turner said. “To have the weather go from ‘oh my goodness is it going to rain?’ to that amazing snowfall. (It was) a phenomenal opportunity. We’re so grateful to everyone for creating this moment for our players.”

Quinnipiac generated its first chance of the game on the penalty kill. Graduate student forward Lexie Adzija forced a neutral zone turnover and shoveled the puck to junior forward Olivia Mobley, who poked it five-hole on Harvard sophomore goaltender Alex Pellicci to give the Bobcats a 1-0 lead.

Bouncing pucks caused by weather conditions allowed both teams to create odd-man rushes in the period’s waning minutes. Two breakaways for Crimson senior forward Anne Bloomer and one for Quinnipiac senior forward Jess Schryver looked to blow the game open, but both Pellicci and Quinnipiac graduate student Logan Angers stood tall in net and the Bobcats took a one-goal advantage into the first intermission.

The snowfall picked up the pace as the second period got underway, making things even more difficult at ice level. This didn’t seem to bother Quinnipiac, who dominated puck possession in the second period.

The Bobcats effectively worked the puck from the blue line in, firing shots from the point as well as moving the puck behind the net for feeds in the low slot.

“After the first period and pretty much from that first timeout we were trying to make adjustments to play a lot less simple, make a lot less passes,” Turner said. “Keep the puck away from the front of our net as much as we possibly could and just be OK to get pucks out.”

Net-front passes along the ice didn’t work, so instead Quinnipiac took up batting practice. Schryver lofted an aerial pass from the right corner to junior forward Nina Steigauf, who sent a line drive over the shoulder of Pellicci to extend the Bobcats’ lead to two.

(2:00) "Swing"- Trace Adkins ⚾️ pic.twitter.com/lqCglNgcxS

— Quinnipiac Women's Ice Hockey (@QU_WIH) January 6, 2023

“Nina goes hard to the net and she finishes up on things,” Angers said. “I feel like I can picture Nina doing that pretty frequently.”

After managing a meager four shots in the second period, the Crimson came out firing to start the final frame. Harvard finally turned its breakaway luck around, as junior forward Shannon Hollands snuck one past Angers less than two minutes into the period.

“I was just moving the puck quickly up the ice and saw an open side bar and shot and there it was,” Hollands said.

The mark of any good team is how it responds. And the Bobcats did so resoundingly. Under a minute later, the puck found freshman forward Madison Chantler below the left dot following an offensive zone draw and she promptly buried it in the Crimson net, bringing Quinnipiac’s lead back to two.

There were a few net-front flurries (pun intended) as the clock ticked down, but after 60 minutes the score remained the same, as Quinnipiac left Fenway with a 3-1 win and a season sweep of Harvard.

“It’s nice when we can get these moments where we’re finding success and people can see what Quinnipiac is all about,” Turner said. “It’s a great university and a great place to play college sports.”

The Bobcats will now head back down to Hamden to prepare for tomorrow’s bout with Dartmouth. Puck drop is set for 3 p.m.