DURHAM, N.H.--The latest test on a true road schedule from hell came last night to the Harvard women's hockey team in a familiar guise.

Another loss.

But another learning experience.

Here in Snively Arena, the Crimson (1-3-0, 0-1-0 ECAC) fought gallantly down to the very end before finally bowing 2-1 to powerful New Hampshire (3-1-0, 3-1-0 ECAC) in their first conference game of the year.

Harvard had a 5-on-3 advantage for the last 1:09 of the final period, but exhaustion kicked in and the Crimson, too tired to chase the puck, could not score the tying goal.

In the Harvard locker room after the game, however, one would have never known that the Crimson came out on the short end. Coach John Dooley gushed with excitement as several team members let out screams of joy.

"We've never played this team any tougher," Dooley exclaimed. "They have four national team players, and still we stuck together until the very end."

`Can't Help But Be Satisfied'

Assistant Coach Bill MacDonald echoed the same sentiment. "When you give an honest effort out there like that, you can't help but be satisfied, no matter what the result."

Certainly, the Crimson could not have been favored coming into this one. The Wildcats, led by arguably the best player in the women's game--senior Karyn Bye--had seven more skaters and much more experience than the relatively thin Harvard squad.

Early on, the Harvard power play seemed to be the Wildcats most effective offensive weapon, as aggressive Wildcat penalty killing led to a shorthanded goal by Suzanne Merz that helped spark UNH to a 2-0 first-period lead.

However, Harvard junior Co-Captain Joey Alissi turned the momentum around when she stuffed the rebound of a Kim Landry slapshot past Wildcat goalie Erin Whitten at 6:32 of the first period to bring the Crimson back within one.

Amazing Villiotte

Thanks to a couple of amazing saves by sophomore netminder Erin Villiotte, Harvard held UNH scoreless throughout the second period.

Try as they might, though, the Crimson could never force the equalizer home, and when freshman Holly Leitzes was sent off for a ten-minute misconduct late in the game ("a freshman mistake", Dooley said), it looked as though Harvard was finished.

But the Crimson fought on. Alissi narrowly missed a rebound chance after a wild flurry in front of Whitten with 3:30 to go.

And in a truly bizarre end-game sequence, four minor penalties were called on the Wildcats in a 1:35 span (the refereeing was at best questionable last evening), giving Harvard the 5-on-3 opportunity.

But fatigue finally wore the Crimson down, and not a single shot attempt was recorded against Whitten in the final minute of play.

"It's inevitable that we are going to get tired in a game where we have only two lines to their four," Alissi said.

NEW HAMPSHIRE, 2-1 at Snively Arena Harvard  1  0  0  --  1 UNH  2  0  0  --  2

G: UNH--Merz, Werner; Harvard--Alissi. A: UNH--Tatarouns, Roberts; Harvard--Landry, Walton. S: UNH--Whitten (17); Harvard--Villiotte (43).