PROVIDENCE, R.I.—Second-seeded Harvard had defeated No. 3 St. Lawrence by five goals in the ECAC championship two weekends ago—and that was when the Saints had their top offensive weapon in the lineup. So with opposing star Gina Kingsbury off with the Canadian national team, taking the Frozen Four semifinal from a weaker squad should’ve been clean and easy for the Crimson, right?

Wrong.

St. Lawrence rallied around co-captain and goaltender Rachel Barrie to give Harvard a run for its money, but in the end the Crimson was simply too strong, winning 2-1 to return to the NCAA championship game for the second consecutive season.

With nine minutes remaining in the first period, junior Nicole Corriero skated deep into the Saints’ zone all alone, finding herself up close to the net.

As she raced in towards Barrie, Corriero became tangled with a defender and pushed the puck forward as she fell to the ice. A St. Lawrence skater scooped up possession and, counting Corriero out of the play, passed it back toward the middle. The sprawled-out Corriero swung her stick and managed to slip the puck right threw the legs of a surprised Barrie.

“I didn’t really see anything, I was just trying to get the puck to the net, and I was hoping my teammate would be able to pick up the loose puck and it went in,” Corriero said. “There was no method to the madness.”

Corriero’s goal reflected a shift in the momentum of the matchup away from the Saints, who came out of the locker room full of adrenaline and with an aggressive edge despite an uncharacteristic opening lineup featuring two freshmen on the offensive side and two sophomores back on the D-line.

“It’s hard when you get down early, but [we] fought to the very last second,” St. Lawrence coach Paul Flanagan said. “I couldn’t be prouder.”

As usual, Barrie’s presence between the pipes kept St. Lawrence in the game all night long. In the last minute, however, Harvard (30-3-1) prevented her from leaving the ice in favor of an extra skater to secure the win.

Down a goal with 40 seconds left, the Saints looked to push the puck onto the Crimson side of the ice before pulling Barrie to give themselves a man-advantage and a better opportunity to knot the score.

But after winning the faceoff, Harvard passed the puck around and pushed it up into its offensive zone, foiling St. Lawrence’s attempts to clear.

All night long, the Crimson had been in the driver’s seat, making St. Lawrence’s scoring opportunities few and far between, while dominating shots 38 to 21.

The Saints held a chance to force overtime in the last minute because of a late goal by freshman Crystal Connors that reenergized her team. With under a minute left in regulation, fellow freshman Chelsea Grills attempted to cross the puck from her position on the far right side of the offensive zone. The puck bounced off a Harvard defender and right into the path of Connors, who was crashing the net. Unprepared for the strange bounce, sophomore netminder Ali Boe had her legs together in anticipation of the cross and could not kick out her left leg fast enough to get a piece of the shot.

“You can’t put a price tag on experience,” Flanagan said. “There is only one way to get experience and that is by getting there.”

St. Lawrence graduated 10 seniors after last year’s campaign, leaving it with a decidedly younger bunch this season.

Both Boe and Barrie rose to the occasion last night, each making a number of key saves when the pressure fell on them. Following the contest, Harvard coach Katey Stone had one word to describe the level of goaltending.

“Superb.”

And on the defensive end, Harvard was stifling.

Until the 14-minute mark in the period, the Crimson kept the Saints from having even a single shot on Boe.

St. Lawrence managed to pick up the pace late in the period and into the next, though almost every chance was a long wrister on Boe with no screen in between her and the shooter.

Before the Saints could manage any real opportunities to tie the score, Harvard put another one past Barrie.

With a minute and a half left in the second frame, freshman defenseman Caitlin Cahow—who has stepped up late in the season with injuries to the defensive core—rocketed a slapshot at the goal.

Sophomore Jennifer Raimondi got her stick up in the air and was able to deflect the puck up into the upper right part of the net-extending Harvard’s lead to two goals.

“We struggled in the first period tonight, but now that we won I won’t feel so bad,” Stone said.

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