A.J. Mleczko finished her career with her signature play--she created a scoring opportunity for her teammates.

The No. 1 Harvard women's hockey team and No. 2 UNH were tied 5-5 after 8:01 of overtime in the AWCHA national championship game when Mleczko, the Crimson's co-captain, won the puck in the left corner. She then raced along the goal line and deftly slid the puck across the crease to freshman winger Jen Botterill, who slammed home the title-winning goal.

It was Mleczko's 77th assist of the season, 23 more than her nearest competitor--sophomore linemate Tammy Shewchuk--and more than enough to earn her the 1998-99 Patty Kazmaier Award as the Player of the Year in Division I.

Mleczko added 37 goals, good for a second-place tie with Botterill behind Shewchuk's 46, and her 114 points shattered the women's hockey single-season record, previously held by Cornell's Cindy Schlaepfer with 89 points in the 1976-77 season.

In addition to breaking almost every school and national record, Mleczko added the ECAC and Ivy League Player of the Year Awards, as well as the ECAC and Beanpot Tournament MVPs to her trophy case.

But Mleczko is not The Crimson's Female Athlete of the Year just because of her statistics and awards. Mleczko's skill, experience and will to win were representative of the greatest women's hockey team in history that brought fans, excitement and a banner to Bright Hockey Center in 1998-99.

For example, the overtime assist in thechampionship game happened after Mleczko hadseparated her shoulder with 30 seconds left in thesecond period.

"I remember the injury pretty clearly," Mleczkosaid. "I was coming into the zone with a full headof steam going around a UNH defenseman and shetook my feet out from under me. I was trying toget the puck out and my arm was underneath me in afunny position when I fell, so my shoulder waspretty exposed when I hit the boards. I rememberthinking that I had to get my head out of the wayand that I had to move or it would have lookedterrible to my parents.

"It was pretty painful at the moment and I'dhad shoulder problems in the past," Mleczko added."But the worst part was the muscles and ligamentsI tore and bruised because every movement with mystick comes from back there. But once the doctorsaid I wouldn't hurt it anymore, I knew I would goback on the ice."

Mleczko had little trouble deciding to play thelast 28:31 of her collegiate career.

"This was the final period of the nationalchampionship game and there wasn't really aquestion about that. I wasn't nervous aboutgetting more injured but about being useless,"Mleczko said.

Unable to wind up on her patented slapshot,Mleczko used everything she had left--her feet,her stickwork and her head--to get the puck toBotterill, the nation's most reliable sniper inthe clutch, for her eighth game-winning goal ofthe season.

"I'm glad I came back out even though I wasn'tthat helpful in the third period," Mleczko said."At least it didn't screw up the lines and we keptanother body on the ice. Maybe on another day Iwould have been able to take the shot instead ofpass to Bots, but I really have no idea."

It was not the first time that Mleczko cameback to lift Harvard to a new level in collegehockey. She took two years off to win a gold medalon the 1998 United States Olympic Team in thefirst year women's hockey was a medal sport.

After that, Mleczko passed up offers to posewith her Olympic teammates for Wheaties and otheradvertisements and returned to Cambridge for hersenior year and yet another historic championship.

"I always knew I was going to come back and Inever questioned the decision once I made it,"Mleczko said. "It's very easy to say I made theright decision now, but people thought I would goback only for my degree and not to play collegehockey because I had already reached the pinnacleof women's hockey.