The perfect balance of hard work, skill and experience can be a hard task. But it’s what every hockey team looks to build in order to be successful on the ice.

This past weekend, the No. 4 Harvard women’s hockey team showed that it can beat almost any team with each of these three qualities, defeating No. 6 St. Lawrence 5-1 on Friday night and Clarkson 4-0 on Saturday.

“We haven’t had the continuity until now because of all the things that happened at the beginning of the season, but we certainly have three very solid lines,” Harvard coach Katey Stone said. “If we keep the game simple, we are going to be a very good team.”

The smooth and experienced play of the Crimson (6-1-1, 6-1-0 ECAC) overwhelmed ECAC newbie Clarkson (4-4-3, 2-2-0), while hard work and tough play in getting to the puck put away the Saints (7-2-2, 0-1-0).

Harvard had its offense firing on all cylinders in both contests, connecting on 4 of its 13 power plays this weekend.

“It’s more about us than it is about them,” Stone said. “We were hustling, we moved well all around.”

HARVARD 4, CLARKSON 0

Although this meeting marked the first time these two teams had played, Clarkson did a good job hiding its relative inexperience in Division I hockey on Saturday night.

A day after St. Lawrence looked almost lifeless as Harvard rolled over the Saints, the Golden Knights fought for every loose puck and played the Crimson to a tight contest before giving up two key goals late in the second period.

Even in net, Clarkson played with intensity, as the Golden Knight’s Kira McDonald stopped 39 shots on the night.

“[It was their] work ethic, no question,” Stone said. “It’s great to play teams that make you struggle, because you have to stay with it.”

Tri-captain Nicole Corriero opened up Harvard’s lead late in the second when she put both a shorthanded and a power-play goal in a span of just over a minute and a half.

The first came at 14:56, when Corriero took the puck towards the net herself and used her brilliant stick work to get the goal. With the puck in front of the net, Corriero brought the puck back as if to shoot—causing McDonald to sprawl forward in expectation—and then took it to the right edge of the crease and flicked it over the goaltender’s left leg.

About a minute and a half later, Corriero deflected a shot by fellow tri-captain Julie Chu for her 13th goal of the season.

“It took us a long time to get to them because they worked so hard,” Stone said. “My hat’s off to them. They gutted it out.”