The next two games were not nearly as dramatic, but they were certainly convincing. Playing against much weaker competition in Augsburg and Gustavus Adolphus, Harvard did what good teams do against inferior opposition--crush it.

The Crimson outshot both opponents by a combined, eye-popping margin of 104 to 26 en route to 9-1 and 10-1 thrashings. Suurkask and Francisco each had a hat trick against Augsburg on Saturday afternoon, while freshman forward Tara Dunn and junior forward Kate Schutt each scored twice on Sunday against Gustavus Adolphus.

"It just happened that we put the puck away this weekend," Francisco said. "Next weekend it might very well be someone else scoring the goals."

"It was a good start," Suurkask added, "but there is still a lot of room for improvement."

Despite their own modesty, the freshmen's statistical totals for the weekend were nothing short of impressive. Suurkask had seven goals and three assists, Francisco recorded four goals and five assists and Dunn contributed two goals and five assists.

The upperclassmen turned in fine performances as well. MacKinnon and Asano played excellent defense, and recorded three and five assists, respectively.

Springer went the distance in net against Minnesota, turning back 30 of the 32 shots she faced. She was removed in the third period of each of the other two contests but still managed to record 18 additional saves on 19 shots.

"Crystal was awesome in the net," Francisco said.

Harvard will carry a good deal of confidence and an undefeated record into the start of the Ivy League and ECAC seasons this weekend. The Crimson travels to Princeton on Saturday and Yale on Sunday and returns to Bright Hockey Center the following week to battle Dartmouth and Boston College.