Women's hockey teams beware. If you take No. 1 Harvard into overtime, don't let the Crimson shoot at the 2:52 mark of the extra period.

Nine days ago against No. 6 Dartmouth, sophomore winger Tammy Shewchuk's goal 172 seconds into overtime gave Harvard a 4-3 victory. Saturday HARVARD  5 PRINCETON  4 HARVARD  8 YALE  3 at No. 8 Princeton, a shorthanded goal from freshman defenseman Angela Ruggiero at exactly the same time capped another successful overtime bid for the Crimson at Baker Rink, 5-4.

"I came down the ice against two defenders and went around both of them," Shewchuk said. "I circled the crease and, from behind the net, I saw Ruggiero coming down the slot. So I gave her the puck and she did the rest."

Harvard (28-1-0, 24-1-1 ECAC) closed out the regular season yesterday with a 9-3 rout of 13th-place Yale (5-21-3, 2-21-3). The victories over the Elis and the Tigers (15-13-1, 14-11-1) gave the Crimson 49 points in the conference--eight points more than its closest competitor--and extended the nation's longest winning streak to 25 games.

Ruggiero's goal came 36 seconds after a charging penalty on co-captain A.J. Mleczko--though Mleczko said the penalty was really committed by fellow co-captain Claudia Asano. It was only Mleczko's seventh penalty of the season.

"I was fighting for the puck with a Princeton player and Asano took both of us out," Mleczko said. "It was a bold call by the ref because they usually put their whistles in their pockets in overtime. We were confident in our man-down unit, but Princeton had just scored a power play goal, so the penalty made me a little nervous because the special teams situation could have gone either way in sud- den death."

Harvard was shorthanded before it even skatedinto Baker Rink. The Crimson played both gamesthis weekend without freshman winger JenBotterill, the highest-scoring rookie in thenation. Botterill is in Finland playing for theCanadian National Team at the World Championships.The Crimson needed two shorthanded goals fromKazmaier Award nominees Ruggiero and Shewchuk inthe last eight minutes of the contest to overcomethe Tigers.

Fortunately for Harvard, Ruggiero made the tripto New Jersey to tally her sixth game-winning goalof the season. After the game, she followedBotterill to Finland, where she will battle herclassmate as a member of the U.S. National Team.Both freshmen will miss the first-round playoffgame against eighth-place Cornell (15-15-0,14-12-0) Saturday at the Bright Hockey Center at 2p.m.

Ruggiero's physical presence, which helpedHarvard blank the Tigers, 6-0, Jan. 10 at Bright,was not enough against Princeton this time as theTigers pulled out to a 2-0 lead early in thesecond period.

The Tiger tandem of senior winger AliCoughlin-a Kazmaier Award nominee-and freshmancenter Andrea Kilbourne-who entered the weekendeighth in the conference in points-combined forthree goals against the Crimson. SophomoreAnnamarie Holmes, who is fifth in scoring amongstECAC defensemen, provided the fourth Princetongoal.

"Princeton played hard," Mleczko said."Everything came together in the first Princetongame, and that was the best we've played allseason. But we were a little flat and didn't playour best game. Everyone is gunning for us and thiswas a wake-up call, but we were able to comethrough in the clutch again."

This was also the first game of the semesterfor starting junior goaltender Crystal Springer,who missed the last six weeks with a brokencollarbone. She made 20 saves but was not ascommanding as she was in the last game before herinjury-coincidentally, her 21-save shutout againstthe Tigers.

"A lot of Princeton's goals came courtesy ofme," Springer said. "My team played well in frontof me and I don't think Princeton had many goodopportunities-the first goal just dribbled throughmy legs and it was pretty painful. Part of thatwas the nerves of my first game back, and some ofit was because I am a little out of practice."

It appeared that Shewchuk had sealed thevictory with 5:06 left in regulation when sherecorded Harvard's first shorthanded goal. ButPrinceton still had the man advantage, andKilbourne-possibly the only threat to Ruggiero andBotterill for ECAC and Ivy Rookie of theYear-responded 47 seconds later with her secondgoal of the day to even the game, 4-4.

"Their fourth goal came on a shot from thepoint," Springer said. "There was a crowd in frontand I didn't see it. I was not in the rightposition."

Kilbourne's goal set the stage for a flurry ofaction in which Harvard struggled to take over thegame as it had against Dartmouth last week. TheCrimson outshot the Tigers 14-12 in the final22:52.

"The play was more even at the end of the game,but everything happened in the neutral zone,"Shewchuk said. "Princeton did a good jobpreventing shots by blocking the net with a wallof defensemen."