The Harvard women’s hockey team entered its longest break of the season on Dec. 16 with its longest winning streak of the season.

Following its 3-1 victory over Connecticut on Dec. 12, the Crimson (8-6-1) earned one of its biggest wins of the year on Dec. 14 with a 4-3 victory at then-No. 6 New Hampshire (11-4-1) on the strength of three power-play goals from junior center Kalen Ingram. Against Maine (7-8-1) on Dec. 16, Ingram assisted on all three Harvard goals in a 3-2 victory.

The win streak upped Harvard’s national ranking to No. 7.

Freshman winger Nicole Corriero scored in each game to up her goal-scoring streak to seven games. She leads the nation in points, goal-scoring, and goals-per-game with 18 goals and 10 assists. Ingram leads the nation in assists-per-game with 17 in 15 contests.

Now the challenge for the Crimson will be to carry the momentum from its recent success through the light portion of its schedule. Harvard has just two official games left before Feb. 1—at Princeton on Jan. 11 and at Yale on Jan. 12. Harvard Coach Katey Stone stressed to the team the importance of staying focused and in shape throughout the lighter portion of the schedule.

“Right now we’re probably in the best shape we’re going to be in all season just because we’ve been playing so much,” said junior captain Jaime Hagerman. “We really don’t want to lose that edge that we’ve had these last few games.”

The break was much-needed as Harvard played a busy schedule over the first two weeks of December.

“This is a perfect time for a break having played eight games in 16 days,” Hagerman said. “People have been killing themselves.”

Harvard 3, Maine 2

The Crimson went up 3-0 after two periods against the Black Bears and then held on despite being outshot 18-3 in the third period.

Three straight wins wasn’t the only streak kept alive against the Black Bears (7-8-1). The victory was Harvard’s seventh in as many tries against Maine in series history. The Crimson also scored twice on the man advantage for the third consecutive game.

Harvard’s first goal came just 2:28 into the game. The opportunity was created when Ingram won the puck down low on the forecheck. Hagerman, seeing that Ingram had no angle to shoot, skated into the zone to give Ingram another option. Ingram put the puck right on Hagerman’s stick, and Hagerman found the back of the net for a 1-0 lead.

That score would hold until the 4:07 mark of the second period when the Crimson struck for a power-play goal thanks to textbook execution. The Maine penalty kill played into the Crimson’s hands by keying in on Corriero during the power play. When Corriero received the puck at the left boards, she snapped it across ice to Ingram, who immediately found junior forward Tracy Catlin wide open on the left side of the net for the finish.

“No one was on [Catlin],” Hagerman said. “Everyone was paying attention to Nicole as the scoring threat.”

Corriero justified Maine’s vigilance when she received the puck on a Harvard power play with 8:18 left in the second period. She single-handedly beat two Maine defenders and unleashed from the top of the crease. Maine goaltender Lara Smart made the initial save, but Corriero scored on her own rebound.