Once upon a time, the Harvard women's hockey team was the best team in college hockey.

The Crimson won every title that was within its reach, the perennial ECAC regular season champion that annually brought home the Beanpot and national championship to decorate the mantelpiece. This was done by means of a humble 33-game winning streak.

During that streak, one of the many victims to feel Harvard's wrath was the then-lowly Big Green. Dartmouth faced the juggernaut Crimson in the 1999 ECAC tournament and was easily vanquished 8-1.

That game was 23 months ago, and marked the last time the Crimson would taste victory against the green-clad army of the north.

Until last Saturday.

This time around, Harvard (17-7-0, 16-3-0 ECAC) was the underdog, facing the No.1 Big Green (20-2-1, 17-2-1), a team ranked at the top spot of the polls all season and usually unanimously.

Dartmouth had only suffered one loss, a shutout to Northeastern, but this was a few days after playing four games in four days, including two games against the seemingly unstoppable U.S. National Team.

Even against the best players the U.S. has to offer, the Big Green played stride for stride with the nationals, avoiding the blowouts that most teams suffer against the powerhouse.

The last time both teams met, Harvard held a 2-0 lead, but could not hold off Dartmouth down the stretch and fell 5-4 in a heartbreaker.

This time around, the Crimson and the Big Green engaged in one of the best college hockey games of the year, with Harvard emerging with the hard-fought 3-2 victory.

The loss ended Dartmouth's nine-game winning streak, and reestablished the Crimson as a contender for the national championship. .

Harvard played its best game of the season, with every player on the ice giving the maximum effort to gain victory over the top team in the nation. In the end, two individual efforts shone above the rest.

The Crimson knew it would have to play its best hockey of the year to match the Big Green, and so did junior co-captain Jennifer Botterill.

Botterill, the leading scorer in the ECAC and arguably the best player in women's hockey this season, made sure the Big Green would not stroll out of Bright Hockey Center with another victory.

With the score tied at 2-2 late in the third, Botterill took a pass from senior forward Tammy Shewchuk and broke loose down the middle.

There was only wide-open ice between Botterill and Dartmouth goaltender Amy Ferguson. Botterill approached at full steam, closing the gap between her and the net in a split second. Harvard fans knew it was over, and Dartmouth fans hoped for a miracle.

Sadly enough for the Big Green faithful, it never came.

Botterill, in true Patty-Kazmaier- Award-nominee form, shot the puck high over Ferguson's right shoulder and into the top of the net, a tremendous shot that was needed to beat a goalie playing a tremendous game. Harvard had the 3-2 lead, and, eventually, the win.

"I think that particularly on the third period we were on Botterill pretty tight," said Dartmouth coach Judy Oberting. "But she got loose, and she had a great look at the net, and when she has a great look at the net, she is more than likely going to hit the back of it, and that's what she did."

In spite of Botterill's outstanding feats, the effort of Crimson freshman goaltender Jessica Ruddock cannot be overlooked.

Ruddock played her best game of the season as well, and it could not have been a more timely performance.

The opposing goalie, Ferguson, played a spectacular game, denying a multitude of Harvard chances in heart-stopping fashion by diving, making kick saves, pad saves, stick saves, all over the crease to hold the Crimson to one goal in the first two periods, despite 27 shots by Harvard.

Ruddock, although facing less shots than Ferguson, made many big saves when the Big Green mounted an attack in the Harvard zone, and especially during the final minute of the game.

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.

Dartmouth is a very good team, perhaps the best in women's hockey, and the favorite to claim the first ever NCAA women's championship.

But none of that mattered to the Crimson on Saturday. The Big Green had taken the torch from the Crimson by force, and Harvard showed that it is not going to bow out graciously and pave the way for Dartmouth's path to the championship.