Last season the Harvard women's hockey team held to form nearly every game held to form as the Harvard women's hockey team rolled to its first national championship. This year has been full of shocking events, but at the halfway point the Crimson finds itself still holding the No. 1 ranking and in good shape to make another run at the AWCHA national championship.

Harvard (13-2-2, 11-2-2 ECAC) has lost the top ranking twice this season, but reclaimed it each time with victories over New Hampshire and Northeastern. The Crimson has not lost a game since the Thanksgiving weekend, but it has not been able to get the job done in overtime. Last season Harvard was 5-0-0 in the extra period--this year it is 0-1-2.

The top forward line continues to lead the way. Junior wingers Tammy Shewchuk (21 goals, 19 assists) and Angie Francisco (14 g, 26 a) and sophomore center Jen Botterill (15 g, 17 a) are three of the ECAC's top six scorers. Sophomore defenseman Angela Ruggiero (11 g, 18 a) leads the conference in scoring from the blueline.

Harvard, which has not played since Jan. 15, will begin next semester with a difficult schedule. The Crimson will host two ranked teams, No. 5 Northeastern and No. 8 Providence, Feb. 5 and 6 before traveling to No. 7 Dartmouth--which beat Harvard Nov. 12--the next weekend. After that, Harvard will likely play the Huskies for the third time in the Beanpot championship game, which will be at Bright, Feb. 15.

The Crimson averages 4.76 goals a game--second in the ECAC. As talented as the Harvard offense is, however, opponents have been able to keep things close into the third period and challenge for a tie or a win. More teams have assembled enough firepower to challenge for the championship.

The perennial contender is No. 2 New Hampshire (15-4-0, 11-4-0 ECAC), which took Harvard to overtime in the championship games of both the ECAC and AWCHA tournaments last season. UNH avenged an earlier loss to Northeastern by destroying the Huskies Jan. 15, 9-1. Senior forward Carisa Zaban (22 g, 23 a) leads the conference in scoring, and classmate Samantha Holmes (22 g, 16 a) is fourth.

But the Wildcats have struggled at times. UNH lost to Harvard and Northeastern in November, and it was stunned at home by St. Lawrence Jan. 7. Last Saturday the Wildcats, who have the highest-scoring offense in the ECAC, were shut out at Dartmouth.

UNH's biggest question marks are in the defensive zone, where Coach Karen Kay has yet to replace All-American defenseman Nicki Luongo (who is now a teammate of A.J. Mleczko '99 on the U.S. Select Team). Senior goaltender Alicia Roberts (1.80 goals-against average), who set a school-record for saves against Harvard in last year's national championship game, is now splitting time with freshman Jen Huggon (1.46 GAA).