There are only two emotions that one can carry off the ice after a 6-2 loss in the National Championship.

Disappointment and pride.

The Harvard women’s hockey team finished an incredible season last year by falling by that very same tally in the NCAA Frozen Four championship game to Minnesota—a team they had not seen all season.

“Now, we know what it takes to win a championship and, on the flip side, we know what it feels like to lose one,” senior Ashley Banfield said.

Last year, the Crimson jumped out with a bang when they defeated Division I newcomer Union by a combined score of 24-0 over two games.

By putting up such amazing offensive numbers while missing two of their stars—then sophomore Julie Chu and Angela Ruggiero ’02-’04—Harvard proved that its explosiveness with the puck was going to be a trademark of the team all season long.

With this explosiveness and hard work, the Crimson made it as far as they did in an unexpected fashion and while fielding a smaller-than-usual team.

“We went to the Frozen Four with 17 players and it didn’t hurt us a bit,” said Harvard coach Katey Stone. “Last year, as we said, we just need to be one goal better than the other team.”

On the steam of consistent and constant scoring, the Crimson took an undefeated record—11 wins—into Minnesota to face off with the team that had defeated Harvard with an overtime goal in the 2002 National Championship, Minnesota-Duluth.

Over the two game set the two teams played in the middle of December, the powerhouses fought to a gritty 2-2 tie and then the Crimson offense took over and won the second one 7-2.

“It wasn’t until Christmas and we were playing Duluth that I thought, wow, we are pretty good,” Stone said. “I wasn’t sure up until that point.”

The win convinced the hockey world that Harvard was the real thing, and it entered the new year with the No. 2 ranking in the country behind Minnesota.

The celebration was short-lived, however, with the next weekend’s opponent—then No. 3 Dartmouth—looming on the horizon.

In front of 1,921 fans in the Bright Hockey Center, the Big Green handed its ECAC rival its first loss of the season—a thrilling 2-1, come-from-behind affair in which Harvard let in two unanswered tallies in the third period.

“Our biggest rivalry isn’t Dartmouth. I think Dartmouth’s biggest rivalry is Harvard—there is a mental difference there,” Stone said. “It’s one big game on our schedule of many big games.”