In a season full of firsts, the No. 1 Harvard women's hockey team swept a weekend series against No. 2 Brown and No. 6 Providence for the first time in school history with two convincing victories over what is, behind Harvard and No. 5 Northeastern, the toughest pair of travel partners in the ECAC. BROWN  2 HARVARD  6 PROVIDENCE  2 HARVARD  5

Not even two of the best goaltenders in the country--1998 ECAC Tournament MVP Ali Brewer of Brown and former Olympian Sara DeCosta of Providence--could contain the nation's best offense. Both talented netminders held the Crimson under its usual clip of 6.57 goals a game, but Harvard managed to produce two lopsided wins, 6-2 over Brown Saturday and 5-2 against Providence Sunday.

The victories pushed the nation's longest winning streak to 19 games and allowed the Crimson to reclaim sole possession of first place in the conference. With 37 points, Harvard (22-1-0, 18-1-1 ECAC) leads second-place Brown (15-4-3, 15-4-3) by four points. Providence (16-8-2, 13-7-2) fell behind Northeastern and No. 3 New Hampshire into fifth place.

The Crimson top forward line of Shewchuk, co-captain A.J. Mleczko and freshman winger Jen Botterill will remain the three highest scorers in the country after another productive weekend in the offensive zone. Mleczko (23 goals-54 assists-77 points) led the way with six assists and a goal. Shewchuk (28-34-62) poured in three goals and two helpers while Botterill (26-35-61) had five assists and three goals, including both game-winners.

But Harvard also received offense from the makeshift forward line of sophomores Angie Francisco, Kiirsten Suurkask and Tara Dunn. Francisco (9-26-35) recorded one goal and three assists, Suurkask (8-15-23) added three assists and Dunn (17-6-23) scored three goals.

Freshman goaltender Alison Kuusisto, recorded a career-high 38 saves against Brown in her fifth start of the season.

Harvard 6, Brown 2

After 40 minutes of very even hockey, the Crimson avenged its only loss of the season with a relentless third-period attack. Harvard lit the lamp five times in the final 20 minutes to run away from Brown in front of a record crowd of 1,711 fans at the Bright Center.

"This was a huge win," Shewchuk said. "Beating Brown like this, after losing to them early in the season, gives us confidence that we can playwith anyone."

The nation's best defense could not stop Harvard's offensive attack. Led by two Kazmaier Award candidates in junior goaltender Ali Brewer and sophomore defenseman Tara Mounsey, the Bears came into the game giving up an ECAC-best 1.15 goals per contest. Harvard joined No. 8 Princeton as the teams that have managed six goals against Brown.

"We were focused the entire game because wewanted to show Brown why we're the No. 1 team inthe country," sophomore forward Tara Dunn said."Now we've beaten every team in the ECAC, but wehave to continue to play well once the playoffsstart."

With the score tied, 1-1, after two periods, itappeared that Brown might upset Harvard again. TheBears outshot the Crimson, 33-16, during the first40 minutes with a stifling interior defense thatprevented Harvard from turning quality chancesinto shots on goal.

Brown was able to pull even 14:39 into thesecond period when Bear sophomore forward KathleenKauth won a wild scramble for the puck behind theHarvard net. She skated into the post for anundefended shot and sent it past Kuusisto's stickfor the goal.

Harvard, unable to develop shots in its setoffense, struggled to create breakaways for therest of the period and had to settle for a tieheading into the second intermission.

"Brown did a good job of packing in the slotand we couldn't finish our passes," Coach KateyStone said. "But once we start moving offensively,we have the ability to score some pretty goals.The third period was just fun to watch."

Most of the offense came from the top line.Harvard took the lead for good 3:14 into the thirdperiod when Brewer deflected a scorching slapshotby MacKinnon. Brewer also stopped a second shot byMleczko, but Botterill won the rebound and sentthe puck top-shelf for the score.