The Harvard women’s hockey team welcomed two western powerhouses to the Bright Hockey Center this weekend but came away with two tough losses.

Coming off a heartbreaking 3-2 loss to No.2 Dartmouth last weekend, Harvard (2-3-1, 2-1-1 ECAC) took on No.1 Minnesota-Duluth and No.8 Minnesota and gave both a scare but ended up running out of steam.

On Saturday, Minnesota-Duluth (6-0-1) overwhelmed the Crimson with an impressive display of offensive explosiveness en route to an 8-5 win. Five different Crimson players scored goals, but the defense couldn’t stop the high-powered Bulldogs.

Minnesota (8-2-2) came to town yesterday and scored three goals in the final four minutes to rally for a 3-2 win. The Crimson outplayed the Golden Gophers for most of the game but couldn’t hold a 2-0 lead in the waning moments.

Freshman forward Nicole Corriero had a solid weekend for the Crimson, picking up three goals and an assist in the two games.

Harvard Coach Katey Stone believes the Crimson is better than the two highly-touted Minnesota schools but just couldn’t take advantage of its opportunities.

“They’re two good teams, but we had them,” Stone said. “They’re not that good. We didn’t play well, and we still had them.”

Minnesota 3, Harvard 2

Minnesota freshman phenom Kelly Stephens scored two goals in a span of 90 seconds late in the game, and Gopher left wing Jerilyn Glenn tipped home the game winner with just over a minute remaining as Minnesota stunned the Crimson, 3-2.

The Crimson played a solid game for the first 56 minutes and seemed to be on its way to victory after going into the third period with a 2-0 lead.

But with just under four minutes remaining, Stephens broke in alone down the right side of the ice, skated across the top of the crease and beat Crimson sophomore goaltender Jessica Ruddock to cut the Crimson advantage to 2-1.

A minute and 22 seconds later, Stephens struck again when she took a pass from the behind the net and stuffed it past Ruddock to knot the score at two with 2:45 remaining in the game.

The Crimson had a chance to regain the lead a minute later, but a shot by Corriero trickled just wide of the net, and Minnesota began a counterattack.

At the other end of the ice, Gopher sophomore La Toya Clarke put a shot on net that Glenn tipped in, and the Minnesota comeback was complete.