Dermody made a breathtaking save with 4:40 remaining in the game, and the senior goaltender stole another shot one minute later.

With less than three minutes left, the Wildcats were desperate--their final gasp hit the goal post off a free throw and Dermody snagged the rebound.

"UNH is a really tough team and they had a couple of good players that came at us really hard," Dermody said.

"But I thought there were some questionable calls around the crease that gave them a little bit more of an edge than they should have had," Dermody added. "They had a lot of penalty shots and that made it tough."

Everling threw a stick-switch to punch a hole in the defense and tally the winning goal with 1:38 showing on the clock. And the fans breathed the proverbial collective sigh of relief.

After Wednesday's 8-4 victory over the University of Massachusetts, Harvard was happy to have survived this game, with both UMass and UNH having a reputation for extremely physical play.

"UMass and UNH always give us fits," Harvard Coach Carole Kleinfelder said. "And when you have back-to-back games, it's hard to get up for every game."

Co-Captain Katie McAnaney tried to explain Harvard's offensive confusion against the aggressive Wildcats' pressure.

"We have to find an attack when we're under pressure," McAnaney said. "We rush the ball and don't take the shots we want and, as a result, we let them dominate the ball."

The well-needed upcoming week of practice should help the Crimson practice for such physical play which alters its own style of play.

"We're going to have to learn to control the tempo of the game rather than let the other team take us out of it," McAnaney said.

THE NOTEBOOK: Harvard takes a breather until Saturday, when it hosts Vermont at 1 p.m. at Ohiri Field...The Crimson, which advanced to the Final Four last season, is currently sitting in second place behind Penn State in the national rankings.