"I thought for the first period it was we stood and we watched them," Mazzoleni said. "I think the shots were pretty indicative of that."

Despite the flurry of offense from a lightening-fast B.C. squad, only one shot managed to slip past Jonas, who turned in another stellar performance and a career-high 44 saves on the night.

Eagles' captain Brian Gionta, who celebrated his 100th career goal Tuesday night, sent a pass from behind the net to Lephart, poised at the crease. Lephart batted the puck past Jonas to light the lamp first at 18:04 in the opening period.

As Harvard turned on the intensity in the middle stanza, both sides reached a boiling point and racked up a number of minor penalties, for a total of 35 minutes, as a result. Sophomore defenseman Aaron Kim let his temper get the best of him halfway through the second, and earned himself a five-minute major for spearing and a game disqualification.

Not only did the physical play help the Crimson balance out the scoring chances in the second, with each team posting only 7 shots apiece, but Harvard clearly garnered the majority of quality scoring opportunities, especially short-handed.

Freshman Kenny Turano found himself in the right place at the right time, and eliminated the Eagles' lead with a wrister in one fell swoop, notching his first collegiate goal at 8:53 in the second.

And in rapid succession, Bala and Moore found themselves with nothing but ice between them and Clemmensen. Bala wheeled down the ice with two defensemen on his tail with just under four minutes to play in the period, but couldn't put away a hard shot from the slot.

"That was one of the marquee college games of the year," York said. "If that happened in the Beanpot, we would be talking about it forever."