You certainly couldn't call it a finesse game.

The Harvard women's hockey team lumbered to a 9-2 decision over the University of Connecticut last night at Bright Center.

The wide margin of victory highlighted a trend in the Crimson's non-league schedule: the icewomen tend to be either blown out or to do the blowing out themselves.

"All the Ivy League games tend to be really tight," Harvard Coach John Dooley said. "It's a wonderful league--it's so evenly balanced it's terrific."

Seven of the squad's nine Ivy matches have been decided by one or two points.

Out of the Ancient Eight, however, it's a different story.

Just look at the Crimson's scores against non-league opponents: 11-1 (loss to New Hampshire), 12-6 (victory over Vermont), 8-2 (win over Boston College), 8-1 and 8-2 (losses to Northeastern), 4-0 and 8-1 (victories over Boston University), and 7-1 (loss to Providence).

And then, just to be consistent, the seven-goal margin last night.

"You have the Big Three [Northeastern, Providence, and UNH], who are on a different level altogether," Dooley said, "and then you have a lot of different teams struggling or just beginning. But even that is coming together."

"As more and more of these prep school kids come along, schools like the Ivies are reaping the benefits," he added.

The imbalances in non-Ivy play may level out as other colleges begin to reap those benefits as well

Last night, however, the imbalances were present in force. And they were all in Harvard's favor.

Despite the absence of two-thirds of the starting forward line (center Liz Ward and left wing Dinny Starr had their history generals), the Crimson offense started to produce almost immediately.

Or was it really the defense?

Five of Harvard's nine goals were tallied by members of the defense, if you count regular left defenseman Julie Sasner (who helped to fill in for Ward) as a blueliner.