Providence pulled its goalie for an extra attacker and trimmed the deficit to 6-5 with 55 seconds left. The Friars sent several shots towards the Harvard goal, but they could not beat Erin Villiotte (39 saves) for the equalizer.
After Villiotte foiled a pair of good scoring chances, the Crimson cleared the biscuit out of its defensive zone with 25 seconds left and never allowed the Friars a good scoring chance.
"The end of the game was hectic," Leitzes said. "It was a great win-everyone played great."
The same could not be said of Sunday's game against Brown. Maybe it was the presence of the television cameras in Meehan Auditorium. (The game was shown on Sportschannel yesterday morning).
"I wish we could have blamed it on the television, but we can't, Leitzes said.
More likely, Harvard's problem was that the Providence game had drained the players.
Already tired from the previous game and still suffering from not having enough players to field a complete line-up, Harvard didn't have the legs to keep up with Brown. The Bears were able to control the puck for long periods of time in the Harvard end and make line changes, while the Crimson fatigued very quickly.
The worst thing that can happen to a tired team is for it to play from behind, and that's exactly what the Crimson did. Disaster struck early, as Brown scored twice in a 47-second span in the first 5:24 of the game. The Bears would never look back.
"We had a good warm-up, but they caught us with two quick goals," Winkie Mleczko said. "Brown has a lot of depth. They always seemed to have fresh legs."
Brown kept the pressure coming all game and built a commanding 5-0 lead before A.J. Mleczko broke the shutout with 41 seconds left.
Mleczko's tally was the only bright spot for the Crimson. Her goal-number 32 on the year-broke her own Harvard single-season record.
Next up for Harvard is a game tomorrow night up at Dartmouth. The Big Green defeated the Crimson, 2-0, earlier this season.
"We can win it if we go out like we did against Providence," Lcitzes said.
"We've got nothing to lose." First Period Har-Kellogg (A. Mleczko, Leitzes) :56. Pro-Wheeler (Mills, O'Sullivan) 6:15. Read more in News
