Mleczko stole the puck at the red line and skated down the left boards before dumping to Botterill behind the left circle. The rookie hit Mleczko cutting along the goal line. Cahill fell down as Mleczko skated across the crease, and the nation's leading scorer flipped the puck into the net.

Then both teams settled down for a period of physical, back-and-forth action as Stone began a three-line rotation she used for the entire game. The Crimson killed two penalties, and Springer made a clutch save with 3.3 seconds left in the period when the Big Green pulled Cahill and sent six skaters against Harvard's man-down unit.

Dartmouth stayed in the game early by creating a few breakaway chances, but Harvard had all the answers. The Crimson narrowly outshot the Big Green, 10-7, in the first period.

But Harvard came out of the locker room on a mission in the second. Mleczko struck first 2:47 into the period when her talented linemates sent a barrage of shots on goal. Mleczko joined the action in the crease, grabbed a rebound and sent the puck top-shelf to record the game-winning goal.

Harvard continued to pressure the Dartmouth defense, and Shewchuk put the game out of reach 30 seconds after Mleczko's goal. Sophomore defenseman Julie Rando, handling from behind the goal, fed Shewchuk in the slot, and the nation's leading goal scorer skated around a defender into the right post before finding a hole in the corner for the score.

"Dartmouth is a good team and they played hard in the first period, but then we settled down in the defensive zone," Mleczko said. "We executed on the breakout and went at them hard. We didn't let them set up their forecheck and that allowed us to get some good opportunities on offense."

After the scoring burst that opened the period, the Crimson took advantage of three costly Big Green penalties in the final eight minutes of the second to make a statement to a Dartmouth team that took Harvard to overtime at Bright Hockey Center on Feb. 27.

Mleczko began the rout 90 seconds after Dartmouth sophomore defenseman Liz Macri was called for a tripping penalty.