And the two-goal lead was enough to hold off Union, which scored midway through the second to put the game within one. Chelsea Heinhuis was the only Dutchwoman to solve junior Kylie Stephens, who made 13 saves in net for her first win since returning to the team last month.

“She did a great job,” Chute said.

The weekend gave Stone the chance to tie former Colby and Minnesota coach Laura Halldorson’s career wins mark, but Friday’s loss prevented President’s Day weekend from becoming a Stone coronation. Saturday’s win gives Harvard a chance to get Stone the nod in the regular season’s final weekend.

“She’s never one to boast about her career,” Buesser said. “It means something to be a Harvard hockey player. She’s built a program that is truly respected. It’s very much because of what she’s done and how she coaches.”

RENSSELAER 3, HARVARD 2

With a two-goal lead and 10 minutes left to play in regulation, it seemed that the Crimson had all the cushion it needed to cruise to its seventh-straight victory. But unfortunately for Harvard, that streak would be bookended by losses to the Engineers, whose forechecking style stumped the Crimson twice this season.

When Amanda Castignetti scored at 11:19 in the third, Harvard still a one-goal lead. But a little over eight minutes later, RPI senior Allison Wright found the puck on a breakaway. With 35 seconds left in regulation, she sent it past Bellamy.

“It was just a nice shot from the top of the circle,” Buesser said. “They had that one rush.”

Ironically, the period in which Harvard was outscored was the only one in which it managed to outshoot the Engineers, who held a 25-14 shot advantage through two periods.

“We don’t like to give up a lot of shots,” Buesser said. “We may have been too focused on offense and forgotten about defense. We need to get back to that mindset.”

But the Crimson didn’t figure things out fast enough to stop Wright, whose stick would again prove lethal in the extra frame.

Wright scored two goals within a minute of ice time to turn Harvard’s one-goal lead on its head, giving RPI a 3-2 overtime victory. The senior’s second goal of the night came 19 seconds into extra time—and mirrored the score of last year’s ECAC semifinal contest, when the Engineers ended the Crimson’s season in an overtime heartbreaker.

“I think they were able to win [a faceoff] on the offensive end,” Buesser said. “It was a backhand that went through a tiny hole in our goaltender.”

However small the hole might have been, it was just big enough to let the game slip through it.

“Friday night was tough,” Buesser said. “Coach Stone tells us to think about it till midnight and then put it behind us.”

—Staff writer Christina C. McClintock can be reached at ccmcclin@fas.harvard.edu.