“She hit the top corner,” Buesser said, “which was awesome.”

But Griffin still had one more goal left in her, and, once again, Bassett was there to help her out, sliding Griffin the puck as she darted down the weak side. The senior completed her hat trick and notched her fourth goal of the weekend by sending the puck past Clarkson goaltender Lauren Dahm.

“She gives the team a lot of intensity and a lot of fire,” Buesser said.

In just 10 minutes, Griffin had turned a two-goal deficit into a one-goal lead that the Crimson carried into the final period. It was the first hat trick of Griffin’s career.

“I don’t think I’ve ever scored more than one goal in a game before,” she said. “Some days you shoot the puck, and it just goes in.”

But just as Harvard hadn’t folded when it fell down two goals, the Golden Knights didn’t disappear, going shot for shot with the Crimson in the third period.

“No team’s going to go away,” Buesser said. “No team’s going to give up this time of year.”

A loose puck in Harvard’s defensive zone stirred up the Crimson enough for Clarkson to slip past it.

“They were able to get the puck off the scrum,” Buesser said. “No one could locate the puck. It wasn’t great, but at the same time, you have to give credit to them for working hard the entire time.”

While Harvard couldn’t bring home a win, it still had enough fuel to secure the third seed in the playoffs and will open the conference tourney next weekend against Princeton at Bright Hockey Center.

“Clarkson is a great team,” Buesser said. “We just counteracted that just fine. It’s a good setup to what this tournament is going to be—very tight hockey. It was a good game to go into the playoffs with.”

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