“What’s remarkable about the 11 [games] is that in everyone’s mind we were able to make it eleven one-game stretches,” Johnson said. “After we’d win or tie, we wouldn’t dwell on it very long…. The reason we could have a streak like the one we had was because we didn’t treat it like one.”

Though the outcome was different, the input had been the same throughout the season.

“We faced some tough opponents [early on], but each game we learned something about ourselves as a team and about the teams we’d be facing in the future,” junior goaltender Cheta Emba said. “Once we started winning, I guess that was the turnaround. But it’s been a journey from the beginning.”

With victory after victory, the Crimson maintained its focus and did not get caught up in its own success. But the post-championship celebration huddle gave Harvard players a chance to step back and admire how far they’d come.

“For the first time this season, [Coach Leone] let us reflect for a second,” Johnson said. “Once we had that trophy in our hands, he let us think about how awesome those last six games in the Ivy League had been…and he let us be proud of that.”

But midway through his talk, Leone brought the group back to the present, looking ahead towards its final Ivy match at Columbia this weekend. There the Crimson will be shooting for its first perfect league record since 1999, the year it had its last 13 game unbeaten streak, as well.

“[Going undefeated] is really a dream, not so much a goal,” Leone said. “The goal is to win the Ivy League, and if you can pull off a 7-0 [league record], then that’s impressive, and we have a tough team to play to see if we can do it.”