PROVIDENCE, R.I.--The Harvard women's hockey team had its chances against Dartmouth in Saturday night's ECAC Semifinal. With a victory the Crimson could have vindicated its two regular season losses to the Big Green and effectively assured itself of one of the four spots in the national tournament.

A dramatic game-tying goal with 6.5 seconds left in regulation gave Harvard one final opportunity. But Big Green winger Kristina Guarino beat senior goalie Crystal Springer five-hole at 14:33 of overtime, finishing an astonishing three-game sweep of the Crimson (21-5-3, 17-4-3 ECAC) by Dartmouth (20-10-0, 17-7-0) for the season--winning 3-2.

Freshman winger Kalen Ingram had hit a slapshot from senior defender Christie MacKinnon into the upper corner of the net in the waning moments of regulation to tie the game, 2-2, but it would go for naught.

Now Harvard must wait until tomorrow to find out whether it will receive one of the two at-large bids for this weekend's AWCHA Tournament.

In overtime, Dartmouth won a faceoff right outside of the Harvard blueline and the puck found its way to Guarino, who skated ahead into the Crimson zone. With the Harvard defense closing fast on her, she sent a hurried shot past Springer.

"We definitely had the momentum and a lot of really good chances in overtime," junior Tammy Shewchuk said. "But it was just a matter of the puck not bouncing our way."

It was a tough ending for Springer. She had stopped shots many times more dangerous throughout the day than the last one she let through.

Her poise in net kept Dartmouth from adding to its lead during regulation. In the second period, she stopped successive barrages of shots. Dartmouth was unable to generate any kind of sustained offense in the third, but the Big Green still had a few breakaways. Springer stopped them all.