That arrangement is hardly permanent. Next weekend, Botterill will be absent for Canadian national team tryouts, so stable line combinations won’t come until at least after exam period.

“Tracy’s been playing well, Kat’s been playing well—I think they both deserve the opportunity to play [on the first line] so we’ll see what fits,” Stone said. “Our hesitation is we don’t want to split up these other lines because they’re playing so well too. They’re good decisions to have to make but they’re hard.”

Stone didn’t rule out playing Ingram with Botterill and Chu on the first line. Ingram and Botterill have already played the better part of two seasons together.

“I like Kalen on that [first] line too, but I also like Kalen where she is centering [the second line]—they play well together,” Stone said. “I think we’ve got a lot of options. It’s just a matter figuring out which buttons to push at a given time.”

Ingram, meanwhile, said she’s happy playing with anyone.

Whatever Stone decides, there is no doubt that Harvard will be vastly improved now that Ingram is back on the ice.

“Kalen being back in our lineup, you can’t really describe what it does to your team,” Stone said. “Her work ethic is second to none. When you bring [such a player] back, it just improves everything everywhere. I’m excited, she’s excited and the kids playing with her are really fired up.”

—Staff writer David R. De Remer can be reached at remer@fas.harvard.edu.