DURHAM, N.H.—With Harvard out to a commanding 4-1 lead in the latter stages of the third period of its NCAA semifinals win over St. Lawrence on Friday night, it was a goal that never quite came to fruition that sealed the victory.

Skating at 4-on-3 inside of seven minutes left in the contest, the Saints cranked up the offensive pressure and edged in on Crimson goalie Ali Boe in desperate need of a score. In their favor was the presence on the ice of sophomore Katie Johnston, inexperienced in the triangular penalty kill.

The unit allowed St. Lawrence forward Chelsea Grills to step into a slapshot from well inside the blue line. The shot deflected off of captain Nicole Corriero and flew into the crossbar, the puck then diving down and teetering on the goal line.

The Saints skaters raised their arms in celebration, thinking they had trimmed the Harvard lead to two, while Corriero and Julie Chu—seeing the puck’s true precarious position—scrambled to knock the puck off the line.

With both teams swiping at the puck, still hovering in the crease, the officials blew the play dead. The referees proceeded to the official scorer’s booth, where they studied the film for several moments before ruling that there was not conclusive evidence to allow the goal.

“The puck actually went off my stick and hit the top crossbar and I guess it went straight down,” Corriero summarized. “I was really happy that they called it as no goal.”

Afterwards, Harvard coach Katey Stone singled out the disallowed tally as the major “turning point” in the Crimson triumph, despite its timing at the end of a seemingly decided game.

“Granted, there were six minutes to go and we still would have been up 4-2,” Stone said. “But I just felt like, ‘Hmm, this might be our day.’ Because we’ve been in that situation before where there've been some very close calls that haven’t gone our way.”

Stone was referring to situations in the previous two national title games in which the Crimson came up on the short end of controversial whistled goals.

This time around, when the call came down in its favor, Harvard couldn’t help but feel confident and wonder if perhaps its luck had changed in 2005.

“The mentality but also the energy on our bench was tremendous,” Stone said. “The kids were fired up. They weren’t tired at all and they kept it really simple. In some of the big games that we’ve played that we’ve come out on top we’ve had that feeling.”

BANGED-UP BANFIELD

Senior Ashley Banfield, the Crimson’s number one defender, went down with a rib cage injury on a penalty kill late in the first period and did not return. By the time she was hurt, Harvard already held a secure 2-0 lead and the urgency to rush her back to the ice was absent.

The team’s other blue liners, in the meantime, picked up Banfield’s shifts without missing a beat.