The Dartmouth women's hockey team, celebrating the return of its top two players, handed Harvard a 6-3 thrashing Saturday at Bright Center.

The Big Green's Estey Ticknor and Karen Clough, both of whom had missed all of Dartmouth's previous games, dominated the ice, as the Hanoverians took charge early and never looked back.

"They had all their horses back," said a frustrated Harvard Coach John Dooley. "They're a super team," he added, but "we played very ragged."

Dartmouth opened the scoring at 6:37 of the first period, when Laurie Rheingold took a Nancy Toland feed and fired the puck past Crimson goalie Tracy Kimmel.

Harvard's Kelly Landry evened the score two and a half minutes later. But the Big Green responded with a shorthanded goal at 11:17, and when Ticknor snuck one behind Kimmel to close out the first-period scoring. Dartmouth had a 3.1 advantage.

Ticknor's goal marked the 400th point of her Dartmouth career. The senior forward was out for the early part of this season with a separated shoulder.

Julie Sasner got Harvard within one at the two minute mark of the second period, as she rifled a shot into the net guarded by Big Green 'keeper Kristen Bjork. But Harvard, which played Dartmouth even for most of the second period, would get no closer.

Dartmouth's Anne Desmond sandwiched goals around a tally by teammate Toland, as the Big Green took an insurmountable 6-2 lead with less than 14 minutes remaining in the contest. Harvard's Christine Dooley netted a goal at 17:24 of the final period, but it was much too little, much too late.