It was a weekend of fire and ice for the Harvard women’s hockey team in Minnesota as the Crimson cooled the fire of No. 1 Minnesota-Duluth in a 2-1 win but was iced the next day by No. 2 Minnesota, 4-3.

The No. 3 Crimson (3-1) won a physical battle versus Duluth on Saturday, as Harvard junior goalie Jessica Ruddock stopped 28 of 29 shots and freshman winger Julie Chu scored the game-winner with 28 seconds to play.

Against Minnesota yesterday, Harvard maintained a 35-16 shot advantage, but the Gophers found opportunities amid the onslaught to eke out a 4-3 win.

The weekend split will likely elevate the Crimson to No. 2 in the national rankings.

“I don’t care about the rankings,” said junior defenseman Angela Ruggiero, one of four Crimson captains. “There’s less pressure on us if we’re not No. 1. At No. 2 or No. 3, we still have something to work for.”

Harvard faced the top two teams in the nation without last season’s national assist leader, senior center Kalen Ingram. Ingram, another captain, broke her thumb slamming into the boards last week at Dartmouth and will be out five to six weeks.

Minnesota 4, Harvard 3

It took nearly 20 minutes for Harvard to dig itself out of a 3-2 hole the Gophers had dug for them. It took only another minute for Minnesota to send the Crimson back into the depths of defeat.

By the time Ruggiero scored to tie the game 3-3 on a feed from Chu, every Olympian on the ice had contributed to scoring, except for Minnesota freshman Natalie Darwitz.

But sure enough, just a minute after Ruggiero tied the game, Darwitz dug a new hole the Crimson could not escape by capitalizing on Harvard’s failure to clear the defensive zone.

This wasn’t the first mistake Harvard made. Just three minutes into the game, the Golden Gophers found the hole in the vaunted Crimson powerplay, tops in the nation last season and responsible for both goals against Duluth. Minnesota’s Kelly Stephens opened the scoring with a short-handed goal on a 2-on-1 with U.S. Olympian Krissy Wendell.

But other than a few miscues, Harvard’s performance was dominant.

At the 14:52 mark, Canadian Olympian and gold medalist, Crimson captain Jennifer Botterill, tied the game with her sixth goal of the season. Then with barely a minute to play in the period, senior Tracy Catlin put the Crimson ahead.

The Crimson outshot the Golden Gophers 13-3 in the first frame but left the ice leading only 2-1.

Minnesota erased its narrow deficit just two minutes into the second period as Wendell tied the game. The Gophers went ahead when defender Allie Sanchez beat Ruddock at the 15:39 mark for a 3-2 lead.