The puck spent most of the final five minutes in the neutral zone, although Harvard did set up its offense for several unsuccessful attempts at an insurance goal. Cornell coach Carol Mullins pulled Hayes with 56 seconds left in the game, but a swarming Crimson defense thwarted the six-on-five advantage and Harvard junior goaltender Crystal Springer covered up all loose pucks to secure the victory.

Springer continued to approach midseason form in her third game between the pipes after recovering from a broken collarbone. She made 36 saves in her first game at Bright since Jan. 10.

This was also the last game for Harvard before freshman standouts Jen Botterill and Angela Ruggiero return from the World Championships in Finland. Stone responded by using her deep bench and adjusting her lines accordingly. Sophomore winger Tara Dunn and senior winger Jen Gerometta both filled in for Botterill and kept the highest-scoring offense in the nation clicking for the first 20 minutes of the game.

Cornell committed four penalties in a very physical first period that saw several near-injuries and near-fights. But Harvard countered with expert passing and aggressive skating that churned out 20 shots. Only an impressive performance by Hayes kept the Big Red in the game long enough for tempers to settle down and prevented a Crimson rout.

"Cornell changed their game plan after the first period and hung with us for the rest of the game," Stone said. "In the first period they came out whacking us, but it backfired because our kids have discipline and can deal with that. It's good for us to play in chippy games because a lot of teams will play like that in the playoffs."

The Crimson wasted no time grabbing the lead as co-captain A.J. Mleczko scored 15 seconds after she won the opening faceoff. Battling a crowd of Big Red defenders in front of the net, the nation's leading scorer hauled in a Shewchuk pass from the right corner and deftly backhanded the puck past Hayes to open the scoring.

The Mleczko-Shewchuk show continued for most of the first period as the tandem continued to pressure Hayes and the Big Red defense. After an elbowing penalty against Cornell senior center Morag McPherson, Hayes stopped a hard slapshot from Mleczko at the point 5:08 into the game, but Shewchuk was waiting at the right post for the rebound, which she buried on the inside corner.

Harvard will advance to the ECAC semifinals at Brown's Meehan Auditorium Saturday against sixth-seeded Dartmouth (16-8-5, 14-7-5), who upset third-seeded Brown. The Harvard-Dartmouth winner will face either fourth-seeded Northeastern or second-seeded UNH.