The No. 6/6 Harvard women’s hockey team needed a stop.

Early in the third period Saturday, the Crimson had watched a 2-0 lead over St. Lawrence disappear in less than 30 seconds. Now with less than six minutes to play, Harvard held a one-goal advantage, but the Saints threatened to tie the contest with a penalty shot after an interference call.

Harvard had lost third-period leads in crucial games before this season, and this was another big matchup. The Crimson had just surrendered its grip on first place in the ECAC with a 2-1 loss to No. 5/5 Clarkson Friday. Another defeat would have meant carrying the team’s first losing streak of the season into the schedule’s final weekend.

More than that, it would have meant a defeat in seniors Elizabeth Parker and Gina McDonald’s final regular season game at the Bright-Landry Hockey Center.

So as Saints forward Kayla Raniwsky wove towards the Crimson net, sophomore goalie Emerance Maschmeyer needed to make a stop. After Raniwsky deked right and then left, Maschmeyer did just that, stopping the puck with her stick before emphatically slapping it to the side boards for good measure.

“Obviously a lot of energy was going through me,” Maschmeyer said of her reaction. “I was super excited–it was a huge save for the team. You could just tell on the bench the team was pumped up about it, so I was excited too.”

Though Maschmeyer had not faced a penalty shot this year, Crimson interim head coach Maura Crowell expected nothing less than a save.

“Once they got the penalty shot, we felt pretty confident in Emerance,” she said. “We run a breakaway drill every day in practice, so we know what she is capable of. That obviously boosted the team and helped us win.”

It was only fitting that McDonald later put the game away with an empty-netter to give Harvard a 5-2 victory.

“That was unbelievable,” Crowell said. “It was not planned that way, but when Gina intercepted that pass and put it away, that was great.”

This year’s senior class was supposed to be bigger, but Kalley Armstrong and junior captain Marissa Gedman had to miss a year each with injury, and Lyndsey Fry got the call to play for Team USA in Sochi.

But for this year’s team, the two seniors have been enough, and Maschmeyer wanted to send them out right. Last year, the goalie was relieved a period into what would be a 3-1 senior day loss to Clarkson.

“Last year, senior day didn’t go so well, so this year it was great to have a great day for our seniors,” Maschmeyer said.  “It was a night they will remember for the rest of their lives.”

Junior Samantha Reber made the win possible with a power-play strike from the slot five minutes into the third, putting Harvard (20-4-3, 15-3-2 ECAC) up, 3-2. Previously, SLU (11-17-3, 10-7-3) had scored 1:30 into the third period and then again 28 seconds later to turn a 2-0 deficit into a tie game.

Before that Saints outburst, it looked like two early Crimson goals might stand up. Junior Sarah Edney got the scoring started with a power-play tally 12 minutes into the game, and two minutes later, classmate Hillary Crowe put Harvard up two. Crowe is now second on the team in goals, two behind sophomore Miye D’Oench.

But St. Lawrence made a game of it, and Maschmeyer was called upon in yet another late-game scenario. Stopping 47 of 49 shots, she now sits second in the country with a .950 save percentage, first among goalies who have played 12 or more games.

Sophomore Mary Parker, Elizabeth's sister, scored an empty-netter before McDonald's clincher. Saturday was the second time this season the Crimson has had five different skaters score a goal in a game.

With the win, Harvard reached the 20-win plateau for a third straight season and remained undefeated (16-0-2) when scoring first. The Crimson also stayed in a tie with Clarkson for second-place in the ECAC, one point behind Cornell. If those three teams win out next weekend, Harvard would host a quarterfinal matchup in the ECAC tournament before potentially traveling for the semifinals and finals.

“The third period was not the way we wanted it to go,” Crowell said. “But I’m happy we came up with the big goals when we needed them, and the saves.”

—Staff writer Jacob D. H. Feldman can be reached at jacob.feldman@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @jacobfeldman4.