SCHENECTADY, N.Y.—For 95.5 minutes, co-captain and goaltender Katie Germain did everything in her power to help the fourth-seeded Brown Bears pull off the tournament’s biggest upset over the first-seeded and No. 2 Harvard women’s hockey team.

But after nearly four hours, the Bears were left pondering the goal that almost wasn’t after freshman Katie Johnston and the Crimson ended its season with a 2-1 double-overtime victory to advance to the ECAC Championship game.

“It’s a shame to lose a game like that, it’s a shame one team had to lose,” said Brown coach Digit Murphy. “When I play Harvard, I’m kind of sick and tired of it being us. I have to take my hat off to [Germain] for that performance.”

After the marathon match, even the Crimson left with a new respect for its Ivy League foes.

“They were quick, they took care of the puck, they stretched it much more today then they have in the other two games that they have played us,” said Harvard coach Katey Stone. “My hat’s off to Brown.”

In the end, Johnston found Germain’s five-hole and hit the jackpot—her second game-winner against Brown this season.

With five-and-a-half minutes left in the second overtime period, Johnston sent the puck from the far right side of the ice to in front of the net, looking for her teammates to bang it home.

Germain, who played solidly for over 90 minutes between the pipes, stopped the puck underneath her, but in an attempt to find it, kicked the puck behind her and into the net with her skate for the game-winning score. Frustrated with this unsuccessful last effort, Germain collapsed on her back for several moments.

“I just talked to her and she said ‘I don’t know what to think right now, I’m just numb, I can’t believe its over,’” Murphy said. “When you’re in a game and the period ends and you know it’s 3 to 1, you can feel it coming, you know that you played a bad game. Or you know you played a great game when you win, but to just have it [stopped] dead in your tracks like that, I think it takes a little while to absorb.”

“To have a puck like that go in—to make the kinds of saves she did today and then to have a sort of knuckleball go in—a little squigger—that’s tough,” Stone said. “Again, it’s [about] finding a way to win—our team continues to find a way to do that, which makes me feel really good.”

Throughout the two overtime periods, Harvard controlled the pace of the game by keeping the puck in the offensive zone and generating chance after chance.

After junior Ashley Banfield’s injury caused a lengthy delay and emotional break in the flow of the game, Harvard came out with renewed energy on the power play.

The result was a flood of shots in the last few minutes of the period, with co-captain Angela Ruggiero and sophomore Julie Chu throwing a couple of shots on net from point blank range.

“When you get down to the stretch of a game like that when it’s so tense and emotions are flying and people are so excited to be in overtime hockey—it’s really mind over matter,” Ruggiero said. “Once you gain momentum it really carries over.”

Junior winger Nicole Corriero kept the momentum going and led the charge out of the locker room by beginning the second extra frame with rushes on Germain off the opening faceoffs.