After a thrilling overtime victory Tuesday against No. 8 Northeastern to capture its second consecutive Beanpot title, the No. 3 Harvard women's hockey team has gained momentum leading into its battle against No. 1 Brown Saturday in Providence.

"It symbolizes one of the first major championships we have to win," junior winger Tammy Shewchuk said. "It's definitely something to build on heading into Saturday."

The Crimson (15-4-3, 12-4-3 ECAC)has hit its stride at the right time. Having lost twice in the past two weekends to Providence and Dartmouth, the victory has helped lift the team's spirits, according to freshman winger Kalen Ingram.

"We're definitely on a bit of a high right now," Ingram said. "We've been kind of down the past two weekends, but hopefully we can put that behind us and keep this feeling going for the rest of the season and into the heart of the playoffs."

Sophomore forward Jen Botterill, who scored the overtime goal to capture the Beanpot title, also recognized the significance of the victory.

"For us to come through with a win on Tuesday was kind of a turning point for us," Botterill said.

However, Brown has also built up considerable momentum, coming off a convincing 6-1 defeat of Dartmouth last Saturday, easily dominating the same team that gave Harvard its most recent loss. Brown followed the Dartmouth game with an 11-0 pummeling of Boston College Sunday.

Harvard has already proven that it can compete on the same level with Brown. In the teams' previous meeting in December, Harvard took a 4-1 lead into the third period, but could not hold on at the end as the Bears came back with three goals in the final ten minutes to tie the game. Shewchuk does not expect to see another collapse from Harvard in Saturday's game.