The defense of the No. 1 national ranking begins this weekend for the Harvard women’s hockey team. While Harvard’s next two opponents—Northeastern and No. 7 Providence—are not overwhelmed with awe, they do have great respect for the Crimson’s abilities.

“I think we’re catching them at a very hot time, which doesn’t look good for us,” said Providence coach Bob Deraney. The Friars host Harvard at 4 p.m. on Sunday.

Northeastern coach Joy Woog, whose team comes to Bright at 7 p.m. tomorrow, especially admires the Crimson’s power play.

“We can’t take penalties against Harvard,” she said. “The only problem that Harvard has is where to score on their power play. Do we score from the back door? Do we score from the point? Do we score from the side? Where do we score from? That’s the biggest question for them to answer.”

But while both coaches might sound like they’re giving up two points and an obligatory bow, the reality is Northeastern (5-7-1) and Providence (8-3-3) both have weapons that can give Harvard (7-1) trouble.

To cut through Woog’s humilty, just ask about her goaltender, the All-American Chanda Gunn. Gunn, the only junior on the team, ranks second in the nation in save percentage and first among teams in the top three conferences.

“We feel we have the stronger goaltending than Harvard—by far,” Woog said.

Harvard junior goaltender Jessica Ruddock might disagree, and she can make her actions speak louder than words. She leads the nation in goals against average—disregarding D-I teams who play D-III teams. Her save percentage of .907 is well below Gunn’s at .938. But since Harvard rarely lets teams possess the puck long enough to take many shots, a large share of Ruddock’s saves are on testy odd-man rushes—like the breakaway save she made on Brown’s Kim Insalaco last Sunday.

Also, Harvard won the one game in which it was outshot—against two-time defending national champion Minnesota-Duluth—with Ruddock in net. Not to mention Ruddock has one more Frozen Four appearance and one more Beanpot title in net than Gunn.

Regardless, Northeastern is a team whose offensive firepower won’t give Ruddock a challenge relative to the high competition she’s already faced. The Huskies are a shadow of the team that fell just short of a Frozen Four bid a year ago. Many of its seniors—including Patty Kazmaier winner Brooke Whitney—have since graduated, though former U.S. national team speedster Brooke White is still playing out her eligibility.

The Huskies’ leading goal scorer is a defenseman—Kim Greene. Their leading forward goal scorer is a freshman—one of 12 on Northeastern’s 24-player roster. And two of their forwards are injured.

To make matters worse, Northeastern is playing at No. 8 Brown tonight, while Harvard has the day off. Brown is a team that has a good track record of physically draining its opponents and leaving them ripe for Harvard’s picking. The Crimson’s 9-2 victory over No. 4 Dartmouth earlier this year may have been aided by the Big Green playing Brown the day before.

The Crimson finds itself in a similarly disadvantageous situation when it visits Providence at 4 p.m. following a 7 p.m. game the night before. The Friars will be coming off a 2 p.m. home game against Hockey East cellar team Boston College.

Perhaps only Dartmouth and UMD have had more success against Harvard than Providence in recent years. The Crimson has been shut out just twice in the last four years—both times by Providence, including last year’s season-worst 6-0 thrashing.

“I have a couple friends on the team, and they said that was the best game they played all season,” said Harvard captain Jamie Hagerman. “We know it’ll be a great game because we’re better and they’re better.”