After Jillian Dempsey scored Harvard’s second goal of Wednesday night’s contest with 44.5 seconds left to play, the No. 9 Crimson (5-2, 5-2 ECAC) could not find the equalizer against a resilient Dartmouth (4-4-1, 4-2-1) squad, who won, 3-2.

The outcome was contradictory to how the game had begun. It took Harvard just 39 seconds to go up, 1-0, thanks to a Lindsey Fry goal in front of the net. Junior Josephine Pucci took a hard shot on goal from the blue line, and Fry was there to direct the deflection right past the goalkeeper and poach the score.

The Crimson did not let up in the first period, coming up with the better looks on goal. But the second and third periods went to the Big Green, who became aggressive on offense and scored three unanswered tallies.

Kelly Foley took advantage of a similar situation to Harvard’s first goal after her teammate’s hard shot bounced off junior goaltender Laura Bellamy. Bellamy was caught out of position, and Foley put the puck away into the open net with 9:01 left to play in the frame.

Three minutes later, Camille Dumais received a pass from behind the net and shot it past Bellamy’s left to set the score at 2-1 Dartmouth.

The third period saw Harvard seeking the equalizer to no avail. The Big Green was solid all night in its penalty kills, even shutting down a 5-on-3 Crimson opportunity that lasted 1:10.  Dartmouth put the game away with 2:50 left to play when Sasha Nanji took an accurate shot from the right and put it past Bellamy’s left shoulder.

The Crimson outshot the visitors, 29-19, but it could not convert its chances into goals.