Defenseman Tom Walsh began the scoring sequence along the right boards and sent a quasi-shot, quasi-pass toward the net. It went off Du’s stick, Mandes took a whack and Du stayed on the doorstep long enough to poke it through at 9:47.

The Crimson used its slow-starting power play (2-for-16, 12.5 percent going in) to move ahead 4-2. BU defender Tom Morrow went off for holding at 10:54, and Harvard needed only 23 seconds on the man advantage before Tim Pettit teed up one of his patented rockets from the top of the left circle. BU goalie Sean Fields knocked it down, but Harvard hoss Dennis Packard—a new addition to the power play unit—muscled his way to the rebound and banged it home.

“Better him in front than me,” Kolarik said with a smile.

It was the best of both worlds: The Pettit of old (17 goals last year) and the Packard of new (team-leading four goals this year). And with Grumet-Morris coming up with 34 saves (16 in the third period), the Crimson was well on its way to a winning record (3-2-1) for the first time this year.

“He got better as the game went along,” Mazzoleni said of Grumet-Morris, who outdueled Fields (28 saves) for the first time in their five meetings.

The win was Harvard’s third in the last two seasons when the opponent scores first. BU took a 1-0 lead at 6:57 of the first on the first of Kenny Magowan’s two goals, but the Crimson responded with goals from Tom Cavanagh (10:52) and Kolarik (12:25) and never trailed again.

Harvard went 0-7-1 against NCAA tournament teams last season, but now owns a victory over a team that was responsible for three of those losses.

“We need to do things out-of-conference, let’s face it,” Mazzoleni said. “Of all the teams in our league, we probably play the most competitive non-conference schedule. We don’t run from anyone. We’ve lined it up against people and haven’t gotten it done.

“We have to get it done, and it’s a start tonight. It’s a start.”

And, just as importantly, an end to the ghosts of big-game losses past.

—Staff writer Jon P. Morosi can be reached at morosi@fas.harvard.edu.