NEW HAVEN--The Harvard women's hockey team went to Eli country to meet Yale, a team that came to the game with a mere 1-6 Ivy League record. But that one win was against Brown, a team that has extended Harvard into overtime twice this season.

But the Crimson wasn't even close to overtime last night as it defeated Yale, 4-1, in front of 85 fans in Ingalls Rink.

It didn't take long for Harvard (10-6-1 overall, 6-1-1 Ivy) to establish territorial dominance over the Bulldogs as, moments after the opening faceoff, the Crimson fired the first of 52 shots Yale netminder Tiffany Bingham would have to face.

Harvard's first-period dominance almost went for naught. But with time ticking down in the first period, sophomore Char Joslin took a pass from senior Amy Hartung and unloaded a rising blast that found the top corner of the net.

In the second period, the Crimson continued to dominate offensively while the Elis still couldn't figure out Jennifer White, the Ivy League's leading goalie.

Meanwhile, Bingham was becoming less of an enigma. With under six minutes remaining in the period, Joslin, who was leading the next charge up the ice, was stripped of the puck at the left-wing boards. But the frozen disc skipped to Sasner who redirected it past Bingham.

And then it was time for the Crimson to score another goal in the last minute of play in a period. With Eli Maria Dennis in the penalty box for slashing, Harvard worked the puck to Joslin, who tallied her 13th goal of the season to end the second stanza with a 3-0 Crimson advantage.

"[Harvard] has got good hockey players," said Yale coach Vic Russo. "We played about as well as we could play."

Coming into the last half of the third period, only two questions remained: A) would Char Joslin get a hat trick? and B) would Jen White achieve a shutout?

By the game's conclusion, only one question was answered in the affirmative--Joslin completed her hat trick with 8:03 left to play.

But exactly five minutes later. Yale sophomore Lorni Fenton received the puck in front of the Harvard net in a goalmouth scramble. Fenton lifted the puck over White's arm to remove the goose egg.

"I was just psyched that everyone got to play more." White said.

Harvard's most important game of the year occurs Saturday at Princeton's Hobey Baker Rink. where the Ivy frontrunners will determine home-ice advantage for the Ivy League tournament. Should Harvard win, the playoffs will be in Cambridge. If the Tigers triumph, Crimson must defeat Dartmouth and hope for help from Cornell or Yale against Princeton.

"It's all over Saturday, so we're going to be ready." said Harvard Coach John Dooley.