Certainly, the Harvard hockey program has made great strides under Mazzoleni, now in his third year.

But something is missing. Hardware.

No ECAC championships. No Beanpot trophy.

In that sense, the Beanpot means just as much as the Crimson’s ECAC contests. The Beanpot is a trophy to play for, and winning it would be a tangible sign of Harvard’s re-emergence onto the college hockey scene. And—fair or not—it’s going to take some sort of championship to prove that the Crimson is back to stay.

The Beanpot also means something to hockey fans in Boston, a town with the largest college hockey following in the country. If you want to do something to be noticed, what better place to do it than in a sold-out Fleet Center, in front of some of the best fans and journalists in the sport?

Last night, it just wasn’t meant to be. However, the Crimson improved considerably upon its performance over the weekend in losses at Cornell and Colgate. Harvard held its own against Northeastern, one of Hockey East’s most physical teams.

“To be honest, I questioned our effort on Friday and Saturday nights,” Mazzoleni said, in reference to the series in New York. “But if we continue to keep this type of effort and focus, good things will happen for us.”

Junior center Dominic Moore saw a light at the end of the tunnel, as well.

“We have to stay positive,” he said. “It’s easy when you start losing to get down on yourself and the negative vibes start to settle in, but I think we have to just stay positive and keep working hard like we did tonight and eventually things will brighten up for us.”

Harvard can certainly take some positives away from its game with Northeastern, as it was able to skate and create offensive chances.

Overall, Harvard kept tight in its own zone. Freshman goaltender Dov Grumet-Morris played very well.

And the Crimson didn’t give up, which might be the most important thing it can take away from this game.

“We came back strong after a tough weekend,” Grumet-Morris said. “We did lots of the little things. We still have a couple of months left. We’re not out of the [ECAC] race.”

Any way you slice it, though, the result was a loss, just the same. But at least the Crimson’s hellish stretch of three games in four days is over.

And really, things don’t look that bleak for Harvard. It’s still tied for second place in the ECAC and—barring a complete collapse—will more than likely have home ice during the first week of the conference playoffs.

Harvard is now looking at a must-win home game with Vermont this Friday night. With a renewed focus and some time to catch its breath, the Crimson should be able to get back on track.

But that’s just the first step Harvard must take on the road to Lake Placid. The Crimson simply has to take care of business from here on out. While the opportunity for the Beanpot championship has passed it by—and possibly the chance of a regular season title as well, given how hot Cornell has been lately—the third member of the “Title Triology,” the ECAC playoff crown, is still very much there for the taking.

But it’s going to take some consistency. Let’s just smile, shake our heads, and see what happens.