The Polar Bears strayed a little too far south yesterday.

The Harvard women's hockey team showed Bowdoin what happens to Bowdoin when it leaves the arctic zone of Maine, winning 9-1 last night at Bright Hockey Center.

"We played very well," Harvard Coach John Dooley said. "In the first period we were disorganized, but we got better later in the game at moving the puck."

The game did begin on an inauspicious note for the Crimson. Only 2:36 into the game, Bowdoin forward Nan Gorton sliced through the Harvard defense and slapped a shot into the bottom left corner of the net past junior goalie Erin Villiotte.

All of a sudden, it seemed that the Polar Bears would not roll over so easily.

"Bowdoin forced us to make errors," Dooley said. "They hustled and pushed us."

The Crimson rebounded quickly, however, to get two goals in the period.

Only 11 seconds after Bowdoin's goal, Harvard co-captain Joey Alissi (two goals, five assists) punched a short-range shot between the posts to tie the game. Then, at the 10:56 mark, sophomore Stacy Kellogg (one goal, two assists) tallied a goal of her own to give the Crimson a 2-1 lead for the first period.

Even with the one goal advantage, the Crimson did not feel totally pleased with their play early on.

"In the first period we were not very good," freshman A.J. Mleczko (four goals, one assist) said. "I don't know what it was."

"Our heads weren't in it," co-captain Francie Walton (two assists) said. "But then it got better."

Indeed it did. The defense bore down on the Bowdoin forwards and stopped any semblance of an offense that the Polar Bears tried to run.

"Our defense has got a lot better recently," Walton said. "We have new pairs [on the lines], and they are working better."

The Bowdoin offense was also handicapped by the loss of their main weapon, Gorton, due to a concussion received due to a nasty check at the hands of Mleczko.

Both teams and the audience held their breath as Gorton lay prone on the ice for an extended period of time. Finally, she was able to wobble off to the locker room with the help of two teammates.

"It's tough to lose your team leader," Dooley said.

As Bowdoin tried to cope with the injury, Harvard struck for two more goals in the period, the last one on a nice slapshot by Mleczko into the upper corner of the net.

Then in the third period, the Crimson came out attacking, as they scored five goals against a defeated group of Polar Bears.

Thanks to the lead, Dooley was able to give more people playing time than usual. Junior Diana Clark had her first goal of the season. Sophomore Ellen Frump's goal was her first point of the season. Freshmen Lauren Turner, Colleen Malek and Kate Schutt all got assists to put their names on the scoring charts.