The Bears outshot the Crimson 24-13 in the first two periods and 30-18 for the game, but Harvard made enough intelligent defensive plays in front of the net and Ruddock made big saves down the stretch to keep Harvard ahead.

The most dramatic of those saves came towards the end of the second, when Brown center Katie Lafleur came down on a breakaway, and Ruddock came out to challenge her. In too close, Lafleur dropped the puck to junior winger Kate Kenny right behind her. But Ruddock fell back, spread her legs around the puck, and made it impossible for Kenny to stuff it through.

Ruddock had struggled in the first period, opening up her five-hole to speedy Brown defenseman Krissy McManus on the Bears’ first goal and leaving an easy rebound for Brown winger Meredith Ostrander to cash in on for the second goal, but she played well enough overall to get the win.

“Our goaltender started out a little unsettled, and she really got into the game and made a really big difference for us particularly at the end of the second period,” Stone said.

The scariest moment of the first period came at the midpoint when Ingram crashed head-first into the boards and was down on the ice for five minutes. But she was ruled ready to play before the end of the second period and assisted on Harvard’s fourth goal.

The Crimson netted that insurance goal 8:37 into the third in transition, as Sweet got the puck to Ingram down the left side boards. Seeing Corriero in front of the net, Ingram took a chance and fired the puck on net. Her shot bounced off Dreyer, deflected off Corriero’s head at the top of the crease and bounced into the net.

“I was just going hard to the net, with my stick on my ice,” said Corriero, who was second nationally only to Dartmouth’s Carly Haggard in goals-per-game going into weekend. “The Brown girl was on me really tight, so I knew if I was going to get the puck it wasn’t going to pretty. So I just threw my whole body at the net, and the puck tipped off my head.”

Corriero also assisted on Harvard’s first goal, when she skated into the zone, and passed back. The puck came to perfect dead stop for sophomore Lauren McAuliffe, who one-timed it into the net.

In the third period, Brown was limited to six shots on goal and fewer scoring chances as Harvard added an extra third player in back.

Brown made a few late rushes to the net, but could not capitalize. Hagerman took two tries at an empty-netter from beyond half ice, but each time her shot deflected off the left post.

There would be no collapse for Harvard this time in the third period, unlike last weekend, when the Crimson gave up three goals in the final five minutes to fall to Minnesota.

“We just kept getting better [today] as the game went on,” Ingram said. “In the past weekend we sort of faded in the third period, but this game, we were like, ‘This is it, this is the third period and we’re going to come out stronger then ever.’ And that was the difference—our third period.”