"I'll take the win any way I can get it," Clarkson coach Mark Morris said. "After a suspect start, we played with some emotion. It was a hotly contested hockey game."

Setting aside its collapses in the third period, Harvard clearly held the upper hand in the first two periods.

Pettit put the Crimson on the board only 1:37 into the first frame. Sophomore defender Aaron Kim worked the puck behind the Clarkson net, and sent a pass up to Dom Moore in tight around the goal. Moore's shot squirted loose in the crease, allowing Pettit to knock home the rebound with an empty net.

Just over four minutes later, Harvard padded its lead with a goal from the elder Moore, to make it 2-0 at 5:46. Moore drove to the net and held off the Golden Knights' defender with his backhand. Switching to his forehand, he netted a controversial shot that questionably crossed the goal line before Clarkson goaltender Mike Walsh could fish it out.

With rookie winger Dennis Packard in the sin bin for hooking, the Golden Knights capitalized on a late power play in the first period. Although the Crimson generated some quality offense with a man down, Harvard couldn't stave off its opponent's potent power play, currently at about 20 percent.

Clarkson's first tally--a soft wrist shot by co-captain Kent Huskins through Jonas' five-hole at 19:16--illustrated a disturbing defensive trend. After dazzling spectators with his Dominik Hasek-like antics between the pipes most of this season, Jonas has had a string of sub-par performances.

"I don't think our goaltending was real sharp tonight either," Mazzoleni said. "You can't blame him, he's bailed us out an awful lot this year."

The Golden Knights evened the score at two at 5:19 with its second tally on the man advantage, a wrist shot past Jonas deep in the slot from winger Jean Desrochers.