For the past three months, the No. 1 Harvard women's hockey team has been the team to beat, and the Crimson has withstood all challengers. With a 25-game winning streak and 49 conference points, Harvard put together an impeccable regular season.

But a much more important season begins tomorrow at 2 p.m. when Harvard (28-1-0, 24-1-1 ECAC) hosts eighth-place Cornell (15-15-0, 14-12-0)--the only unranked team to make postseason play--in the first round of the ECAC Tournament at Bright Hockey Center. This will be the last home game of the season for the Crimson.

"This is the last home game for the seniors, but it's more than that," said co-captain Claudia Asano. "The fact that it's a playoff game is more important than anything else. If we lose, we can't win the ECAC, so everything is on the line."

While shocking, a loss would not be disastrous for Harvard. By clinching the top seed in the ECAC Tournament and the regular season conference title, the Crimson also secured an automatic bid to the AWCHA National Championship's four-team field March 26 and 27. So Harvard will be playing over spring break regardless of what happens in the conference tournament.

"It's nice to have the insurance that there will still be more games in our season at the end of March," Asano said. "But that motivates us to play better because everyone is gunning to beat the No. 1 team in the country. And we still want to prove why we're No. 1."

Perhaps the biggest advantage for Harvard will be home ice. Fans have broken attendance records twice this season--against UNH and Brown--and Bright could be developing into the most difficult rink in the ECAC.

"We will be ready for whoever walks into our rink Saturday, Cornell or anyone else," said sophomore forward Tara Dunn. "Hopefully the fan support will be there as it has in our other big games."

The Crimson took the color out of the Big Red, 4-2, Feb. 20 at Ithaca. Although the score was surprisingly close--Harvard crushed Cornell, 7-2, Nov. 21--both Big Red goals came harmlessly in the last 1:25 of the contest. Even so, the four Crimson goals fell short of Harvard's nation-leading average of 6.59 goals a game.

"We didn't play that well at Cornell," Asano said. "We assumed too much and then panicked at the end because we thought the game was already over. But every game is big in the playoffs and we need to play better this time."

The Big Red skates into Bright with the ECAC's ninth-best offense (3.17 goals a game) and seventh-best defense (2.15 goals a game). Senior goaltender Alanna Hayes is ninth in the conference with a .904 save percentage and 10th with a 3.12 GAA.

The Cornell offense is led by junior forward Colette Bredin (16 g, 10 a), who is 42nd in the conference in scoring, and the playmaker is senior forward Morag McPherson (7, 15). Sophomore Danielle Bilodeau (9, 13) is tied for eighth in scoring amongst ECAC defensemen.

But the Crimson is more concerned about its own defense rather than the Big Red offense. Harvard's defense allows 1.62 goals a game--third-lowest in the ECAC--but has given up 2.33 goals per contest since the Cornell game.

"Defense is the main component we have focused on all week," Dunn said. "Defensive zone lapses have cost us in recent games. Goals will come for us, but we need to work on our defensive zone coverage. We have to communicate and move on the breakout instead of just standing still."

That defense will be without the services of all-everything freshman Angela Ruggiero (18, 33), a Kazmaier Award nominee and the highest-scoring defenseman in the nation. Ruggiero is playing in the World Championships for the United States National Team in Finland, and classmate Jen Botterill (32, 41)--who leads all freshmen in the country in scoring--is playing for the Canadian National Team.

Neither rookie played in Harvard's regular season finale, a 9-3 blowout at 13th-place Yale. Botterill also missed the two previous games, against Boston College and at No. 8 Princeton, but Ruggiero provided the game-winning goal to lift the Crimson over the Tigers in overtime, 5-4.

Harvard Coach Katey Stone adjusted the defensive lines in New Haven to compensate for Ruggiero's absence. She matched junior defenseman Courtney Smith--who usually skates alongside Ruggiero--with classmate Christie MacKinnon and paired Asano--usually MacKinnon's linemate--with sophomore Julie Rando.

Dunn (18, 15) has filled in for Botterill on the top forward line of co-captain A.J. Mleczko (31, 71) and sophomore Tammy Shewchuk (44, 45), the two highest-scoring skaters in the nation. Dunn, who is normally the third-line center, has scored a goal and made seven assists in the three games Botterill has missed.

The first line is still solid, but Botterill's absence could hurt Harvard's depth. If Cornell manages to hang around until the third period, Stone will not have the luxury of bumping Dunn onto the second line of sophomores Angie Francisco (11, 31) and Kiirsten Suurkask (11, 15). In the nailbiter at Princeton, senior winger Jen Gerometta (7, 8) played on the second line and had an assist.

"We all know what we have to do, and our roles are not different," Dunn said. "We are capable of beating Cornell without Botterill and Ruggiero, and we can still cut down to two lines in a close game."

The Crimson will also have junior goaltender Crystal Springer between the pipes, starting in her third game since recovering from a broken collarbone. Springer is second in the ECAC with a 1.40 GAA and third with a .928 save percentage. Freshman netminder Alison Kuusisto guided Harvard to nine wins in Springer's absence with a .900 save percentage and a 1.87 GAA.

"My bone is set and there is no fear of re-breaking it, although my arm is a little weaker coming off the injury," Springer said. "I go into most games wanting to put out a solid performance because I know my teammates can score for me. But the Cornell game will be more personal just because I'm trying to get back to where I was before I hurt myself. I need to focus on playing with confidence and solid fundamentals."

Springer made a rocky return at Princeton, recording 20 saves while allowing four goals. In 51:15 of action at Yale, she shut down the lowly Elis with 10 saves.

Notes

Tomorrow's winner will move on to the ECAC semifinals at Brown's Meehan Auditorium March 20. If Harvard wins, as expected, it will face the lowest-seeded team that advances past the first round, which could be either Northeastern, Providence, Dartmouth or Princeton.

Including Cornell, the Crimson has beaten all five of those opponents in the last six weeks.