"Those first two periods, we were playing pretty darn well, and our defense was playing well too," Tomassoni said. "[Holding the opposition to] 6 shots per period is pretty darn good."

Entering the third period, the Bright Arena faithful hoped that the Crimson would not again fall prey to their third-period letdowns.

Their fears were realized all too quickly.

Forty seconds into the period, Earl Cronin took a pass from linemate Mike Harder and Ron Fogerty, then wristed a shot from the top of the right faceoff circle to close the gap to 2-1.

Before the Harvard players could catch their breath, Colgate struck again.

Right off the face-off, center Chris DeProfio fed Debusschere, who dropped it off to sophomore Jeff McIntosh. The defenseman regained the team lead in goals as he back-handed a shot past Tripp Tracy.

Only twenty-four seconds apart, the goals destroyed Harvard's momentum and sent the few Colgate supporters into wild jubilation.

The down slide continued at 11:31 into the final stanza. Colgate junior Brad Dexter swung around the right side of the net and pinpointed a shot in the upper corner over a sprawled Tracy, giving Colgate a 3-2 lead.

"Obviously we only have ourselves to blame," Tracy said. "We always prided ourselves on being a third-period hockey team, [but] we've given up the most goals in the third period."

Tomassoni also seemed befuddled about his team's third-period play.

"That third period is something I'm concerned about, in every one of our games so far it has been our worst period," Tomassoni said. "We certainly have to do something about it, figure out what and why."

Tomassoni also mixed up his scoring lines constantly during the third period, trying to find some sort of effective combination.

"We're in the tinkering stage, and want to look at some different things," Tomassoni said.

The Harvard players did not let up after the third Colgate goal. After being stuffed at the doorstep twice before, Nielsen finally penetrated the Brenzavich defense with a shot from fifteen feet out. The tally evened the score at 3-3 and with 4:07 left swung the momentum back to the Crimson.

"From a positive standpoint, I liked the way we reacted [to Colgate's third goal]," Tomassoni said. "We were able to come back, while they certainly had a lot of momentum going in their favor."