But this game should not have gone into overtime. The Crimson outshot the Big Green, 43-32. The problem, a recurring theme from last season, was careless defense in the first period.

Dartmouth pounced on Harvard early. Just 1:22 into the game, a horde of Big Green skaters crowded in front of the net, pelting sophomore goaltender Alison Kuusisto with shots until junior winger Kristina Guarino knocked one in.

Ten minutes later, Dartmouth freshman center Carly Haggard found herself all alone inside the right circle, where she flipped a backhander past Kuusisto. With 32 seconds left in the opening period, Haggard fed a backdoor pass to classmate Lydia Wheatley, who scored from point-blank range.

"We have got to give Kuusisto some support," said sophomore defenseman Angela Ruggiero, an All-American blueliner last year. "In the first period we were playing Dartmouth loose and not latching on. We picked it up by the third period, but it wasn't enough."

The three first-period goals were so crucial because, once Dartmouth had a comfortable two-goal lead, it could lay back and pack in the zone on defense. That's what the Big Green did in the second period, when Harvard peppered Dartmouth junior goaltender Meaghan Cahill with 16 shots--its most productive period of the game.

Cahill came through in a huge way for Dartmouth. For the final 1:43 of the second, with Harvard enjoying a five-on-three advantage, the Crimson reeled off a sequence of excellent scoring chances. But Cahill turned them all away, including a sprawling deflection of a shot from Shewchuk at the doorstep, to preserve the two-goal lead.

But Harvard was not fazed by Cahill, or by her teammates' physical defense. The Crimson needed two goals in the third period, and that was just what it got. Playing shorthanded, Ruggiero fought her way into the crease to cut the deficit in half 1:41 into the final period. Junior winger Angie Francisco got the equalizer 10 minutes later by putting back the rebound on a shot from Shewchuk, her linemate.