The mixing of the lines proved successful, extending the Crimson’s tear, which began follwing a loss to Princeton just over a week ago, with six goals on the night.

“Princeton was definitely a wake-up call for us,” Corriero said. “It’s been inspirational for us because we know what’s going to happen when we have lapses—to have [Prinecton] in our memory.”

No. 3 Harvard 4, Colgate 3

Just 19 seconds after Colgate forward Amanda Barre seemed to stem the Crimson surge with her second—and game-tying—goal, Ruggiero knocked home the game winner that marked a four-goal flurry within two minutes.

Heading into the third period, Harvard found itself down 2-1 to an unranked team, an unfamiliar position for the Crimson in the last few years.

With the game winding down and no change on the scoreboard, Harvard hadn’t improved its situation.

Then Ruggiero and Chu exploded, registering two goals and four assists to lead Harvard to the victory within the final five minutes of action.

None was bigger than Ruggiero’s deciding goal with a 1:11 left in the game.

“Chu went back to me, and I just took a slap shot,” Ruggiero said. “And I think it deflected off of someone or something and then went right in.”

Chu’s four assists continued her offensive outburst that has helped spur Harvard’s strong week of hockey, all while still feeling the pain from a wrist injury sustained nearly two months ago.

But the late surge reflects Harvard’s inability to put away Colgate earlier in the game.

“We didn’t play our kind of hockey until the last ten minutes,” Corriero said. “We were playing undisciplined defense, not our usual inspired and hard-working hockey.”

Heading into the final stretch leading up to the ECAC tournament, the Crimson will have to work on the areas that put them just a few minutes away from a loss or tie to unranked Colgate.

“We haven’t really been challenged defensively at all,” Ruggiero said. “They put a lot of pressure on us. We need to concentrate on the defensive side of the game more because we are so used to playing the majority in the offensive end.”

Harvard returns to action when they face off against Northeastern in the Beanpot championship at BC Tuesday night at 8 p.m.

—Staff writer Gabriel M. Velez can be reached at gmvelez@fas.harvard.edu.