"There were definitely rules out there, but they just didn't apply to them," senior forward Tammy Shewchuk said sarcastically. "Stuff like that happens, but you just got to be prepared for it no matter what."

The Crimson responded brilliantly to the adverse conditions--scoring five goals in the last 10 minutes. The team clearly upped its intensity over the final stretch. The only possible criticism is that it took a whole two periods for the team to adjust.

"A hockey game is 60 minutes--if it was 40 minutes that would be a problem now wouldn't it?" Shewchuk responded. "It was just a matter of getting our chances and capitalizing on them."

Scheduling Mayhem

I caught the last five minutes of Northeastern's 3-0 loss at Brown on Saturday. It was a sad sight to see a team who had beaten the nation's top-ranked team just nine days before struggle like it did. When Brown scored its third goal with a minute left, one Husky whacked her stick against the side of the net in anguish, and the rest of the team was too jaded to care that much.

The biggest culprit for the Huskies' demise has been their schedule. The team has played five games in nine days--all against teams ranked no lower than sixth in the nation--with plane rides between Minnesota stuck in between. Northeastern Coach Joy Woog told The Boston Globe on Friday that her team simply ran out of gas in the third period against the Crimson.

At the opposite extreme of the scheduling density spectrum is Harvard, who played just two games in 33 days between Dec. 3 and Jan. 6 and has a two-week exam break forthcoming.