Junior Brad Konik, who played his first game since injuring his knee two year ago, crossed a pass to the right face-off circle to Martins, who quickly centered the puck to Gustafson who converted it into a goal.
"I thought we moved the puck pretty well after the first period," Tomassoni said. "[The third goal] was a picture-perfect play. It was as pretty as they come."
UNB's Alastair Still made the score 3-1 in the final minute of the second period on a rebound goal past senior goalie Steve Hermsdorf, who came into the game at the 9:58 mark of the middle stanza (or, 1:06 before the lights went out). Hermsdorf would stop eight of the 10 shots he faced.
However, junior Tom Holmes would sandwich two goals around another Gustafson power-play deflection tally in the third to bring the Crimson's lead to 6-1 before UNB's Craig Brocklehurst ended the scoring with 7:09 to go.
The end result was a win, and the players had to be pleased with their overall performance, especially since this was the team's first action against another school. And even though the first period was truly hideous, Harvard settled down and played well in the final 40 minutes, where it outshot UNB, 28-11.
"We have been practicing for a long time, and you kind of get sick of seeing the same guys and scrimmaging each other over and over," Karmanos said. "I'm happy we got a win in the first game, and we're ready to get going for the real thing now."
The real deal starts this Saturday in a 7 p.m. game at Brown.