The Harvard men's hockey team could have felt sorry for itself midway through its game against Dartmouth on Saturday night.

Hampered by injuries and reeling from Friday's disappointing 5-1 loss to Vermont, the Crimson was faced with a 2-0 deficit after Big Green forward Mike Maturo's goal at 11:18 of the second period. Harvard No. 14 in the U.S. College Hockey Online poll going into the weekend was suddenly in real danger of falling to 1-3 in the ECAC.

In a jam-packed Thompson Arena, the Crimson could have folded. Instead, Harvard battled back, managing to salvage a 3-3 tie with the Big Green (1-1-1, 1-1-1 ECAC), a team the Crimson defeated 5-2 at home on Nov. 4.

"I'm proud of the way we played against Dartmouth," said Harvard Coach Mark Mazzoleni. "It was very important that we came back the way we did."

Sophomore forward Tim Pettit agreed.

"Coming back [against Dartmouth] was crucial," he said. "We didn't want to get swept. [A win] would've been huge, but it was good to come out with a tie against a real veteran team. It's huge for our team confidence.

"With 18 freshmen and sophomores, our team is a 'work in progress,' as Coach Mazzoleni says," Pettit continued. "We have lots of bumps and bruises, but we're starting to get things going. After a couple more weekends we should have all of our systems working."

The tie on Saturday night gave the Crimson (1-2-1, 1-2-1 ECAC) its third point in the ECAC standings, putting them in a fourth-place tie with Dartmouth.

Vermont 5, Harvard 1

Against Dartmouth at the Bright Center last weekend, the Crimson lived by the power play.

Friday night at Vermont (1-4-0, 1-1-0 ECAC), they died by it.

The Catamounts were downright lethal on the man-advantage, capitalizing on four of their seven chances in the game.

Outside of special teams situations, however, Harvard seemed to have the upper hand. The Crimson outshot the Cats by a 45 to 22 count.

"We didn't play a bad game," Pettit said. "We were just very undisciplined. We took some penalties, and they capitalized on the power play."

UVM got on the board early, as junior forward John Longo scored on the power play 4:15 into the game. The Cats added another man-up tally later in the period, as Vermont's leading scorer, freshman standout Brady Leisenring, made it 2-0 at the 16:57 mark.