And then the noise came. Not from just one Harvard player. It came from everyone, and from everywhere, because the way the Crimson was playing, everyone was everywhere.

The Bash Brothers themselves, Ryan Lannon and Kenny Smith, were doing it. As soon as he stepped onto the ice, fifth-year senior Liam McCarthy did the same.

Kolarik, Tim Pettit and Andrew Lederman were also flying around, anxious to get the puck. They were all tapping their sticks. They all wanted the puck.

But the best part about it was that it wasn’t in a selfish way at all. Harvard was dominating again, and they each just wanted a touch to become part of it.

At long last, the Crimson was playing Harvard hockey again. It did the things it had to do in order to succeed. It dictated the tempo. It was in control.

But most importantly, the Harvard players were having fun again. The cages and ITECH shields covering their faces couldn’t keep the sellout crowd of 2,776 at Bright from seeing their wide smiles after each of the six goals.

Harvard was skating freely, checking hard and carrying the play at almost all times. And when a hockey team is executing as well as the Crimson did on Friday night, there are few things in sport that are more beautiful to watch.

As Kolarik pointed out after the game, the team was only able to do that because it was playing together.

“We played as a team tonight, bottom line,” he said. “At times, we’ve shown that we can be a team out there, but at other times we don’t play as a unit of five and that kills us. We just have to keep playing as a unit of five. That’s something special.”