BOSTON--For a brief but short-lived moment Monday night at the Fleet Center, the Harvard men's hockey team looked poised to repeat an improbable victory from yesteryear.

With less than a minute left to play in its first-round Beanpot match-up against Northeastern (9-13-3, 4-10-2 Hockey East), Harvard (8-10-1, 3-9-1 ECAC) found itself trailing, 3-2 Sensing the urgency of the situation, the Crimson attacked the Huskies' net with six men, sending a flurry of shots towards freshman goaltender Jason Braun. But nothing went through. Meanwhile, precious seconds ticked away.

With 20.5 seconds left on the clock and the face-off in their own zone, the Huskies called a timeout. Meanwhile, the Crimson discussed their game plan.

"We were trying to get it back to Ben," said Harvard Coach Ronn Tomassoni, referring to senior defenseman Ben Storey. In last year's first-round Beanpot victoryagainst Boston College, Storey scored thegame-tying goal in the last seconds of the thirdperiod to push the game into overtime. The Crimsoneventually won, 4-3.

And so, true to its game plan, Harvard set uptheir six-man face-off in the Northeastern Zone.Sophomore forward Steve Moore won the draw andsent it back to Storey on the right point. Storeywound up and let loose.

The shot was deflected out of play.

14.2 seconds left. Once again, the two teamslined up for the face-off in the Huskies' zone.This time, sophomore forward Harry Schwefel tookthe draw. And once again the puck was successfullybrought back to Storey, who squared up and slappedaway.

Glove save.

9.6 seconds left on the clock, and the tensionwas mounting. Moore went back into the circle totake the draw. Though Moore couldn't win theface-off cleanly, Schwefel skated in to knock thepuck back to Storey.

It was Storey's third chance to play the hero.But this time he didn't shoot. Instead, Storeyslid the puck across the ice to junior defensemanMatt Scorsune, who had moved out towards the leftside. Scorsune loaded the cannon and fired a blastthat completely blew past a screened Braun.

The clock stood still at 4.5 seconds.

"Ben gave me a great pass," Scorsune said. "Ijust saw an empty net."

No Happy Ending This Time

But despite the inevitable feelings of deja vu,Harvard couldn't finish the task.

"We felt good going into overtime," Tomassonisaid. "But it wasn't in the cards."

Although the Crimson came up with some qualityopportunities in front of the Huskies' net earlyin the overtime period, bad bounces and missedpasses made it impossible to convert.