DULUTH, Minn.—The weekend that the Harvard women’s hockey program has prepared for all season is finally here.

Tonight at 5 p.m. the No. 2 seed Crimson (29-2-1) looks to avenge a 4-3 regular season defeat to No. 3 Minnesota (27-6-1) and advance to the national championship game. No. 1 Minnesota Duluth (29-3-1) and No. 4 Dartmouth (26-7-0) meet in the other semifinal. The Harvard game will only be shown on tape delay in the Boston area, but it will be broadcast live on WHRB.

By all indications, this tournament will be the deepest ever and the most well attended ever.

“My first year we played in the national championships it was special. Now the game’s grown so much and there’s so much depth in all the teams that are competing here,” said Harvard captain Jennifer Botterill.

“It’s hard to predict what’s going to happen because all four teams are exceptionally strong,” said Minnesota coach Laura Halldorson.

Harvard would prefer to leave nothing to chance, as it did in its two regular season defeats this season.

“I think in the two losses one thing that sticks out in my mind is the feeling after the game that we could have done something more,” said captain Jamie Hagerman. “I feel like in a lot of the games where we’ve just dominated we felt we left everything on the ice. And I think for us as a team we thrive on making sure we leave nothing to chance.”

“Last time we played Minnesota we were a bit too hesitant,” she added. “It wasn’t necessarily that we weren’t going as hard as we could. We need to ask more out of ourselves and we will on Friday.”

Much has changed since the first Minnesota-Harvard meeting from November. Harvard was playing just its fourth game of the season coming off a win over Minnesota-Duluth.

“We didn’t have a ton of games under our belts at that point,” said Harvard coach Katey Stone. “Were we as prepared as I hope to be on Friday? I don’t think so.”

Harvard will hope to regain the defensive form that carried the team during its 27-game unbeaten streak before lapsing in Sunday’s 7-2 defeat against Dartmouth.

“I think we just need to do a better job of taking away space from opponents and not letting them create offense in

our defensive zone,” Hagerman said. “We gave them too much room on Sunday and I think against a team like Minnesota we’re going to have to make sure we don’t give them time to set up. They have some good players, and if you give them enough room, they will use it.”

Such players include U.S. Olympians and freshmen forwards Natalie Darwitz and Krissy Wendell. Seniors Winny Brodt and Ronda Curtin are among the most potent defensemen in the nation.

Minnesota receives a big boost with Wendell’s return. She had been out for over a month with a broken collarbone. Harvard looks forward to the challenge.

“[Wendell] is a good friend of mine and I’m excited that she’ll be able to come back and play in the Frozen Four,” said freshman Julie Chu, one of Wendell’s U.S. national teammates. “I hate to see her injured and I hate to see her missing games. I’m excited I’ll get to play against her because we want them to have all their best players when we’re going to face them.”

Wendell and Chu had plenty of time to socialize during a players reception at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center yesterday, followed by a Championship Banquet. The Banquet was both a celebration of women’s hockey and an opportunity for players to roast one of their teammates. Among the highlights of the evening was when Dartmouth’s Amy Catlin was asked to list reasons why she was less spacy then her sister, Harvard senior Tracy Catlin. Her most convincing claim was that the Harvard team itself nicknames her “Spacy Tracy.”

Yesterday’s event was full of fun—a fundamental element of the weekend. While today’s games will be much more stressful, they will also provide many of the athletes their first chance to experience the thrill of playing in front of 5,000 people.

“The thing about Minnesota fans is they’re true hockey fans,” Stone said. “They understand the game. They understand the effort and the sacrifice these kids put in to be good. Win or lose, we’re going to go out there and enjoy this weekend.”

Though the Crimson will enjoy the weekend regardless of the result, it will be far more enjoyable if it ends with an NCAA championship.

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