Jonas stopped 41shots on the tilt, including a lightning-quick glove save on center Nolan Graham with about 6:30 left in the middle frame. Graham was patiently trying to pick his spot just above the crease at the tail end of a two-on-one, but Jonas beat him there.

The Engineers were a little shorthanded offensively, missing two of its top-four goal scorers. Marc Cavosie was over in Russia playing for Team USA at the World Junior Championships and sophomore winger Carson Butterwick suffered a back injury Friday night at Brown.

Still, RPI played with little passion as the bigger and faster Crimson was able to dictate the play physically with surly freshman defenseman Dave McCulloch leading the charge.

Harvard, too, was missing one of its best forwards with sophomore Brett Nowak also donning the Red, White and Blue in Russia. And the Crimson only played five defensemen with sophomore Aaron Kim getting suspended for a game disqualification penalty against Union. Three of those five were freshmen.

"We are still giving up too many shots per game, that is a component of our inexperience on defense," Mazzoleni said. "But our young guys are starting to get comfortable because they've been seeing a lot of ice time in different situations."

Harvard put the game away in the third period. Bala netted his ninth goal of the season on the power play at 2:22, converting a pass from Petit on a two-on-one that emerged during the man advantage. RPI freshman Ryan Shields narrowed the Crimson's lead to 4-2 at 8:17, but just over a minute later, freshman winger Tyler Kolarik scored his second goal of the weekend on a wild play.

The Crimson had a shorthanded two-on-two rush that was degenerating into a two-on-one. Kolarik passed the puck to a cutting Petit, but an RPI defender dove to break up the pass. However, he ended up sliding himself and the puck into the back of the net.

Marsters stopped 27 for Rensselaer. The Engineers had won nine of its last 10 against Harvard going into the contest.