NEW HAVEN, Conn.—Many Harvard hockey teams have traveled to the Yale Whale since 1959. Few have won.

With a 6-3 win over the No. 15 Bulldogs on Saturday night, the No. 12 Crimson emerged from New Haven with a victory for just the third time since 1987.

That victory, together with a 6-3 win over Princeton the night before, gave Harvard (9-3-0, 9-2-0 ECAC) its fourth weekend sweep of the young season. Harvard is now in sole possession of first place, four points ahead of Yale.

“This was a major step forward against a major rival,” said coach Mark Mazzoleni after the Yale win. “We were playing for first place in their building, and I think we showed a lot of poise.”

The sweep was the Crimson’s first on the road against Princeton (1-12-0, 1-9-0) and Yale (7-4-0, 7-3-0) since Mazzoleni’s first season three years ago, and it marked the first time in 15 years that Harvard has won all four games on the Princeton-Yale and Clarkson-St. Lawrence road trips.

“We’ve had a pretty tough start to the season, since we’ve been on the road seven of our 11 league games,” said junior forward Tim Pettit, who had six assists on the weekend, bumping his ECAC-leading point total to 19. “We’ve had all of these tough road trips, but we’re pretty happy at this point with what we’ve accomplished so far.”

Harvard 6, Yale 3

Harvard never trailed against the Bulldogs, but the Crimson still needed a pair of third-period goals to erase Yale’s hopes of a comeback.

With Harvard clinging to a one-goal lead midway through the third period, junior winger Dennis Packard slid a low screened shot past Yale goaltender Peter Cohen to make it 5-3 with 11:58 left in the game.

“That fifth goal kind of broke our back,” said Yale coach Tim Taylor ’63, whose alma mater kept him at career win No. 299 for at least one more game.

Senior center Brett Nowak, a New Haven native, added an empty-net goal with 1:02 remaining.

After the Crimson took an early 2-0 lead, Yale rallied to tie the game, 2-2, 6:44 into the second period.

“We definitely knew Yale was a dangerous team,” Pettit said.

Enter Harvard sophomore Brendan Bernakevitch, who had just three career goals going into the game and had centered the fourth line the night before against Princeton.

Given another opportunity on the top line Saturday, Bernakevitch responded with a pair of timely goals.