“That was one heck of an individual play,” Mazzoleni said. “I don’t know how many times [Moore] came out. It had to be one heck of a play to beat [Danis], because we couldn’t beat him with anything. You watched him save shot after shot and just said, ‘I can’t believe this.’ He’s one heck of a goaltender. He’s as good as I’ve seen. I won’t be surprised next week if he’s on the All-ECAC First Team. He deserves that.”

Moore, though, was confident that his team was going to be able to solve Danis one last time to punch its ticket to Lake Placid for the second year in a row.

“I think we dominated both overtimes,” Moore said. “I think Brown sort of laid back. It might’ve been because they were tired or just wanted to play a conservative style, but I think the shots reflected that we controlled the play in both of the overtimes. It seemed to us that it was just a matter of time.”

The numbers certainly supported Moore’s statement, especially when looking at the third period and first overtime session. During that 40-minute stretch, Harvard outshot Brown (14-15-2, 10-10-2) by an eye-popping margin of 34-7.

Danis saved all but one of those shots, the exception being Crimson junior center Brett Nowak’s tally at 5:30 of the third that tied the game 1-1.

The goal was characteristic of Nowak’s strong play all season in front of the net. With wingers Tyler Kolarik and Brendan Bernakevitch clogging things up in front of Danis, Nowak was able to put back his own rebound for his 13th marker of the season, tying him with sophomore Tim Pettit for the team lead in goals.

“Nowak’s a tough kid down low,” Brown Coach Roger Grillo said. “He’s probably one of the best kids I’ve seen in college hockey in the last six or seven years as far as controlling play down low. He’s a tough guy to knock off the puck.”

Nowak’s game-tying goal—and, ultimately, Moore’s game-winner—validated a tremendous individual effort by freshman goaltender Dov Grumet-Morris. The only mar on Grumet-Morris’ 31-save performance came on a penalty-shot goal by Brown just before the second intermission.

As time was expiring in the second period, Crimson senior captain Peter Capouch—playing in the final home game of his stellar career—was whistled for tripping Brown sophomore winger Brent Robinson as he brought the puck in on Grumet-Morris. Referee Scott Hansen awarded Robinson a penalty shot.

With the Bright Center crowd of 1,594 on its feet as Robinson aggressively addressed the puck at center ice, Grumet-Morris charged out of his crease to challenge his opponent. Robinson countered Grumet-Morris’ energy by pulling the puck back about 25 feet from the goal and beating the Harvard rookie five-hole to send the Bears to the locker room with the game’s momentum in hand.

But that was the only time the Bears got the better of Grumet-Morris, who solidified his position as the team’s number one goaltender with very consistent play throughout the weekend.

“I’m very proud of [Grumet-Morris],” said Mazzoleni, a former goalie himself. “I thought he did a very, very good job for us and made some key saves. That’s a tough game to play as a goalie when the puck is on their side for that long.”

Grumet-Morris—now 7-2 in home starts this season and undefeated in his last four games at Bright—refused to let fatigue or the superb play of Danis on the other end disrupt his focus.

“I was just trying to concentrate on the basics and stay mentally alert,” Grumet-Morris said. “Every time a period ends you just want to go out there with a clean slate and focus on winning that 20 minutes.”

It was a tough loss for Brown, but the Bears had plenty to be proud of as they left Bright Saturday night. Brown was one of college hockey’s great success stories this year, winning 10 more games than it did last season, including victories over St. Cloud State (Minn.) and UMass-Lowell, both of whom were in the top ten nationally at the time.