To convey the level of authority the officials had in this game, it takes only the description of a single sequence. Midway through the second period, a referee spotted a nearby mass of Harvard and Northeastern players exchanging words and shoves. It appeared that the referee would take action as he aggressively skated towards the skirmish, but as the thin man neared the ferocious women, he awkwardly shied away like a timid child.

Needless to say, such behavior by the referees did little to maintain order on the ice. Not helping matters was the officials' balance of calls on the night. Harvard piled up 10 penalty minutes in the second period alone, as compared to just two for Northeastern.

That is an amazing statistic considering that at present, Northeastern is the second-most penalized team in the country while the Crimson is the 10th-least.

Perhaps the referees called so many penalties against Harvard because they took some twisted pleasure in repeatedly provoking Botterill. At one point in the second period, the game was delayed about three minutes as Botterill chatted with a referee, skated back and talked to her bench, then--finding another conversation too great to resist--skated back to the referee to resume her dialogue, before finally taking a faceoff.

"I guess we didn't see exactly the same things that they did, and we had to chat a little bit to see what was going through their minds," said Botterill. "But it was good, because they were very informative."

Friday night's game might have been enjoyed by fans of professional wrestling, a sport where body slams are commonplace and where athletes are rewarded for becoming actors.

"There were a lot of interesting calls. I don't think there was control of the game from the beginning," Stone said. "I questioned whether [the Huskies] were diving a lot. But it worked for them. If the refs aren't going to catch it then I guess it's a good strategy, but it's certainly not how we want to play."

The Harvard-Northeastern battle did not approach the level of physical violence of a typical men's game--the rules were enforced just enough to prevent that. But the relative disregard for the rules made Friday's game reminiscent of the version of hockey played between teenage thugs on rural frozen ponds