Despite fast and physical play on both nights at Bright Hockey Center, the ECAC-leading Harvard men’s hockey team gained only a split against Princeton and Yale this weekend.

On Friday against the Tigers, the Crimson peppered Princeton senior goalie Dave Stathos all night long, but Stathos was inconveniently in position to stop every one. Harvard fell, 2-1.

“Their goalie was very good, but there were pucks that hit him that he had no idea were hitting him,” Harvard Coach Mark Mazzoleni said.

The Crimson met with more success in the second and third period against Yale, as the Crimson turned extended pressure against senior goalie Dan Lombard into four goals, good for a 4-3 win.

Harvard 4, Yale 3

Against perennial rival Yale, some bounces went Harvard’s way even if the calls didn’t and the Crimson pulled out a comeback victory.

Similar to the previous night’s game against Princeton, Harvard (9-6-3, 8-3-2 ECAC) outshot its opponent, this time 28-20. Lombard, however, was not nearly as successful as Stathos and four of the 28 shots he faced found the back of the net.

Yale (5-10-2, 5-5-2) began the game’s scoring in the first period, jumping out to a 1-0 lead on a goal scored by sophomore forward Mike Klema and assisted by junior forwards Evan Wax and sophomore Ryan Steeves.

That lead would stand up until the 5:27 mark of the second period, when sophomore forward Dennis Packard’s shot from the right circle flashed past Lombard, tying the score.

The goal was Packard’s seventh of the year and was assisted by sophomore defenseman Kenny Smith and junior forward Brett Nowak. The key play on the goal, however, was the effective screen provided by sophomore defenseman Dave McCulloch, who not only cut off Lombard’s view, but also lifted a defenseman’s stick off the ice to stop a potential blocked shot.

Yale pulled ahead once again with nine minutes left in the second period on a pretty passing play. Freshman forward Chris Higgins directed a pass from deep in Harvard’s left corner that went with alacrity to fellow forward Vin Hellemeyer and then to captain Luke Earl, who was camped out on Harvard goalie Dov Grumet-Morris’ doorstep. Earl slammed home the point-blank shot to give the Elis back the lead.

Harvard pulled even once more on a penalty shot by Moore, who wristed a shot past Lombard at 13:15 of the middle period. Moore earned the penalty shot himself when he received a long outlet pass from the Harvard blue line to the Yale blue line and, breaking in on goal, slammed a shot past Lombard that clanged the cross bar and dropped into the crease behind the Yale goalie.

A mad scramble for the puck ensued, during which Yale defenseman Greg Boucher gloved the puck in the crease, prompting the penalty shot.

In the six minutes that followed Moore’s seventh goal of the year, Harvard was whistled for five penalties, and spent the remainder of the second period and the beginning of the third period fighting off Yale power plays.

But fight those power plays off Harvard did and in the third period, it would be Harvard’s turn with the man advantage. The Crimson notched the game’s last two goals on the power play and that combination of penalty-kill success and power-play capitalization was the turning point of the game.