The Big Green made it clear from the very beginning that it would not allow any easy goals. In the first period, Harvard was on the power play for eight minutes. The Crimson dominated, outshooting Dartmouth 16-7. But the Crimson could never get its shots by Ferguson.

"We moved the puck extremely well on our power play," Ruggerio said. "We dominated on our power play."

Harvard frequently misfired while trying to redirect shots in the opening minutes. Too often the Crimson deflections flew in completely unpredictable, unproductive directions.

"We definitely had a lot of chances," Shewchuk said. "I hit a post once. It was just a matter of capitalizing on the chances that we got."

Ferguson and the Dartmouth defense played the game nearly mistake-free. The same could not be said for Harvard. Both of the Big Green's first two goals could have been prevented.

An errant Harvard pass from behind its own goal left the puck sitting in front of the net close to three Dartmouth players. Springer tried to push the puck away, but Big Green center Kristin King managed to fire a shot by Springer as she was moving back into the net at 12:11 of the first period.

The second goal came on a Dartmouth power play at 4:03 of the second period. Defender Liz Macri took a slapshot from the point, but the rebound bounced to unmarked junior Carrie Sekela down low who had plenty of time to convert the easy chance.