“I think this game speaks volumes about the character of the kids we have in this locker room,” Grillo said. “The lumps we took last year helped us this year, and the lumps we took this year will help us next year.”

Harvard 4, Brown 1

When asked after Game 1 how long it had been since his team had played as well as it did Friday, Mazzoleni paused a few seconds. Then he grinned.

“It’s been a while,” he said. “I can’t remember. We were hitting on all cylinders tonight.”

That pretty much says it all.

The most important goal of the night was the first one. Going into the game, Mazzoleni and most everyone else on the team stressed how important it would to take an early lead.

As it turned out, it took a Warwick, R.I., native—Harvard freshman Tom Cavanagh—playing against his hometown-area school to get the Crimson on the board first.

Cavanagh gave Harvard a 1-0 lead just 2:16 into the game when he capitalized on a turnover caused by linemate Brendan Bernakevitch in the neutral zone. Cavanagh skated in along the left-wing side before beating Danis five-hole with a laser from the faceoff dot.

“That was big,” Mazzoleni said of Cavanagh’s goal. “We’ve played pretty well during our struggles, but we just haven’t finished very well. Jumping out in front gave us a big shot of confidence. I thought we continued to build off that.”

Cavanagh sensed how important the goal was, as well.

“We hadn’t [scored first] in the past few games, and we lost the past few games,” said Cavanagh, who assisted on two more goals in the game for his 20th and 21st points of the season. “So it was good to get the first one and get everything going.”

The Crimson built off of Cavanagh’s goal and dominated play for the rest of the period, using its forecheck both to apply offensive pressure and limit Brown’s chances. Harvard held a 10-4 edge in shots on goal at the first buzzer.

The Crimson had a 2-0 lead by that time, as well. With under three minutes to play in the period, the Crimson power play needed just eight seconds of ice time to strike, as freshman defenseman Noah Welch unleashed a rocked from the point that beat Danis glove side.

After a scoreless second period, the Harvard power play struck again early in the third. This time, Pettit got the puck at his sweet spot above the right faceoff circle and blasted it by Danis to make it 3-0 just 27 seconds in.

Brown brought the deficit back to two on a tally by sophomore center Shane Mudryk, but Moore added an empty-netter with 19 seconds left to seal the victory.