With its superstar line reunited, the Harvard women's hockey team appeared to have regained some of last year's championship magic.

The unit of junior winger Tammy Shewchuk, sophomore center Jen Botterill, and junior winger Angie Francisco notched two goals in the first eight minutes--four total for the game-- to give the Crimson a 4-1 lead with under 10 minutes remaining last night.

But then, Harvard's relative mediocrity and inconsistency returned. No. 4 Brown came storming back with three goals late in the third period and No. 2 Harvard (8-2-1, 6-2-1 ECAC) was left with a 4-4 tie, in a game it believed it had won.

"This was definitely a loss," Harvard Coach Katey Stone said. "[Brown] really fired it up. They got better throughout the game, and we stayed the same. If you do that, you can't win."

For the second time in her three games since returning from injury, junior goalie Crystal Springer had a rough third period. On Saturday the Crimson nearly blew a 4-0 lead to ECAC cellar-dweller Yale after giving up three third-period goals, but against the Bears (8-2-2, 7-1-2), its third period woes were costly.

"We just have to work harder and harder," Stone said. "We missed a few assignments on defense, because we were mentally lazy."

The Crimson thought it had the game wrapped up with 9:35 left in third period, when Botterill put home a beautiful wrist shot from a seemingly impossible angle that popped in and out of the far corner of the net.

With the 4-1 lead, the team was showing no ill effects from Botterill and Shewchuk's two-week hiatus with the Canadian national team.