Corriero felt a surge of pain in her neck and cried out, then remained motionless on the ice for nearly five minutes.
“I just was really scared because you hear about all those freak stories where people hit their heads and they never walk again,” Corriero said.
Corriero did come back to play in the third period. She sweetened her evening and kept her six-game goal-scoring streak alive by scoring on a quick, deceptive wrister that snuck past Huggon inside the left post at the 7:38 mark.
The game disqualification charged to Bernhard for her hit on Corriero set the Crimson off on a five-minute power play. But Harvard wasted the opportunity when Crimson center Tracy Catlin was called for a hitting-from-behind minor penalty just 15 seconds later. The Wildcats then capitalized on the four-on-four with under four minutes left in the period, as UNH winger Jaime VanMassenhove beat Kuusisto top-shelf on a breakaway.
The Wildcats killed the rest of the penalty.
Harvard began to wear down in the final minutes of the second, due largely to its short roster and the Olympic-sized ice surface its skaters had to cover. But the Crimson bounced back in the third as the Ingram and Corriero goals put Harvard up 4-1.
“At the end of the second period, I think we were holding on hoping that we weren’t going to lose,” Stone said. “In the third period we went to win, and that’s what turned it around for us.”
UNH cut the deficit to two on a power play when UNH freshman winger Steph Jones found the net after winning a loose puck in traffic at the 9:25 mark. Winger Annie Fahlenbrock then made the score 4-3 on a deflection that snuck inside the right post with 3:29 left in regulation.
UNH kept the pressure on in the final minutes, but couldn't find the game-tying goal. Harvard was just as unlucky on its attempts for an insurance goal, as Corriero hit a post on an empty net, and a McAuliffe shot went wide down the stretch.
Like Wednesday’s game against Connecticut and the 3-2 loss to Minnesota last month, Harvard had a two-goal lead cut to one in the final minutes. But like the UConn win and unlike the Minnesota loss, Harvard persevered.
“We knew what we didn’t want to happen,” junior captain Jaime Hagerman said. “So we just worked on good defense, keeping it down low, and minimizing our mistakes.”
UNH Coach Karen Kay considered Friday’s game just as winnable as her team’s losses to unranked Connecticut and Providence in the past two weeks.
"I think we're a better team than Harvard. Not to take anything away—they won the game. But I think we’re a better team," Kay said.
Harvard will play its last official game of 2001 at Maine on Sunday. The Crimson has never lost in six meetings with the Black Bears.