Dartmouth pulled Ferguson in favor of the extra-attacker, and assaulted the Crimson net in a last effort to tie the game.

Ruddock stayed poised and prepared, stopping shots and rebound shots from all directions, to preserve the lead and spoil the great effort by Ferguson.

"At that point, I was just thinking if it comes down low and in the crease, they would have a lot of people coming at the net at once," Ruddock said. " I just wanted to keep the puck in front of me and be really hard on it, and it worked."

Without a doubt, Harvard needed this win desperately. The recent loss to Princeton had left everybody wondering as to whether this team could go all the way in the post-season, but winning against the Big Green dispatched any disbelief.

Such a high caliber victory also significantly boosts the Crimson's chances of entering the NCAA tournament, since not many teams can boast of defeating the top-ranked team in the nation.

Harvard is now solidly in second place in the ECAC, since Brown and St. Lawrence lost over the weekend, and the Crimson will likely enter the conference tournament as the second seed.

This could set up another showdown against Dartmouth in the ECAC finals, but the Crimson now knows that it can run with the Big Green--and Dartmouth knows that it has somebody to worry about before it can claim victory as its own.