A hooking penalty against Ruggiero, who was defending Northeastern's star winger Hilary Witt, gave the Huskies one more chance with 3:01 left in regulation. Northeastern Coach Heather Linstad pulled goaltender Erika Silva, and winger Lisa Giovanelli knocked in a rebound with the six-on-four advantage to cut the deficit to one goal with 1:56 remaining.

But Northeastern center Colleen Coen drew an interference penalty 24 seconds later and the Huskies were unable to score again. Shewchuk completed the hat trick on an empty-netter with 16 seconds left to seal the victory.

The Crimson outshot the Huskies, 35-32 and converted two of its three power plays. More importantly, Harvard did not allow Northeastern to set up its offense and it did not give Witt--who is tied for third in the conference with 32 points--many legitimate scoring chances, although she did record two assists.

Northeastern opened the scoring 2:01 into the game. Springer stopped a shot by Witt, but Husky center Kim Vallone was waiting to put back the rebound.

Shewchuk put Harvard in front by scoring its two first goals. She evened the score at 1-1 6:22 into the game by flying into the slot and sending a pass from Francisco past Northeastern goaltender Erika Silva.

"We found that the more we worked it in the corner, the more discombobulated Northeastern got," Shewchuk said. "So we were working it down low and Angie got the puck in the corner. She gave me an awesome pass and they left me alone in front of the net."

Harvard took the lead on the power play at 8:21 of the first period. Ruggiero swung the puck to Shewchuk, who walked in from the left circle for the goal.