Cavanagh, Packard and Pettit accounted for both goals and all five points against the Big Green, to go along with the five points they combined for Friday in Burlington.

The group hadn’t skated together for any substantial length of time before, and didn’t even begin the weekend together. Senior Rob Fried was slated to go with longtime pass-pals Cavanagh and Pettit, but everything changed early Friday night, when senior second-line wing Kenny Turano went down with a ankle broken in two places that will likely require surgery and a three-month rehabilitation.

Out of those unfortunate circumstances came a classic combination of smooth playmaker (Cavanagh), aggressive shooter (Pettit) and big body (Packard).

“Pettit and Cavanagh have always played well off each other, and Dennis Packard is a very bright hockey player. He’s got good hands and a good feel for the game,” Mazzoleni said. “They have real good chemistry. They read off each other very well.”

That is, after all, how they scored the game-tying goal. Midway through the second, Pettit moved into the zone in transition, squared to goalie Dan Yacey, and unleashed a patented slap shot. It went only as far as a defender’s shin guards. Luckily for Pettit, the rebound came back his way. His shot fake drew everyone’s attention, and before they could recover, Pettit slid a quick pass to Cavanagh, unmarked on Yacey’s left.

With Cavanagh’s finishing skills, it was no contest. He went top-shelf. Tie game.

Cavanagh’s second goal came with 2:24 left in the second, capping a 30-second possession in the Dartmouth zone. Packard warded off a defender with one arm to gain possession, and used the other to send a pass to Cavanagh in front. He crept in, took aim and picked the far corner for his 24th career goal.

“That was a great job by Dennis, the way he held off his man,” Cavanagh said. “He gave me a lot of room.”

And when the second-period horn sounded with the Crimson still ahead 2-1, history said this one was over. It wasn’t.

“A tie was tough for us,” senior wing Blair Barlow said. “We definitely came in here looking for two points.”

Harvard 6, Vermont 4

BURLINGTON, Vt.—Trailing 3-2 in the second period Friday, the Crimson was halfway to its first 0-2 start under Mazzoleni before scoring four of the game’s final five goals, including two by Packard, to overcome Turano’s devastating injury and defeat the host Catamounts, 6-4, before a sellout crowd at Gutterson Fieldhouse.

“The guys knew what they had to do, and they did it,” said assistant captain Tyler Kolarik, who had a goal and three assists in the game. “They worked hard. Everyone played really gutsy.

“We lost a guy early. That’s a gut check. We were behind. That’s a gut check. The guys showed they’ve got a lot of balls out there.”

Mazzoleni said his team did “a lot of good things” Friday night that it didn’t do in last Saturday’s 2-0 clunker against Brown.