The Harvard women’s hockey team’s first game at No. 6 St. Lawrence on Friday was an uncharacteristic struggle.

The Crimson’s prolific first line was silenced entirely as the Harvard forecheck let up one odd-man rush after another. Harvard trailed after a period, regained the lead in the second, and then abruptly surrendered it again in the third.

Yet through it all the No. 1 Crimson still escaped with a 3-3 tie that ended a 17-game win streak but kept an 18-game unbeaten streak alive.

“You learn a lot from those tough game situations and adversity,” said Harvard captain Jennifer Botterill. “We came back, came from behind, and never gave up. We truly believed we were going to win that game on Friday night.”

On an evening when Harvard felt none of the bounces were going its way, one finally did with just over three minutes left to play.

The second line was on the ice, fighting desperately to come back from a 3-2 deficit. As sophomore Nicole Corriero carried the puck down the right wing, she heard captain Kalen Ingram calling for a pass in front, and she sent the puck across.

Corriero’s pass never reached Ingram. Instead, it deflected off the shoulder of St. Lawrence goaltender Rachel Barrie and into the net.

“When I originally threw it out in front I was hoping to hit Kalen for the tip, but it was a little too close to the net,” Corriero said. “So it ended up going in—I was happy with that.”

Once the game was tied 3-3, the two goaltenders—the Saints’ Barrie and Harvard junior Jessica Ruddock—let nothing else pass.

“We had great chances, and they had some great shots too, but we really thought that we were going to bury it the last few minutes of regulation and overtime,” Botterill said. “Right down to the last few seconds in overtime we had a great chance, but the puck just wasn’t going in for us that night.”

Ruddock has rarely seen more than 20 shots in a game this year, but on Friday she faced one two-on-one after another. She needed to perform, and she did.

In a late second period two-on-one, Canadian national team member Gina Kingsbury was set up with a pass across the crease, and Ruddock busted across the net for the save that preserved a 2-1 Harvard lead.

Her biggest save came with just eight seconds left in regulation when she stuffed the Saints’ Lindsay Charlebois, who had broken free off a two-on-one. Ruddock said that letting St. Lawrence win on that shot was simply not an option.

“From my perspective, there’s no choice in a game that close,” Ruddock said. “You have to make that save.”

“We couldn’t have asked more from her,” captain Angela Ruggiero said of Ruddock. “She stood on her head.”