Junior goaltender DOV GRUMET-MORRIS made 20 saves in the Harvard’s 5-3 victory over No. 8 UMass, including one spectacular series of stops in the second in which he fended off a battery of shots.

After a heartbreaking 3-2 loss to crosstown rival No. 2 Boston College dropped his team to .500, Harvard men’s hockey coach Mark Mazzoleni had had enough. In front of the entire team, he called out the skaters not carrying their weight and challenged them to live up to the potential that had earned the squad its high preseason poll rankings.

Turns out his players got the message.

“I thought we outworked them,” Mazzoleni said. “There wasn’t one guy out there that didn’t play hard and we haven’t had that the whole damned year.”

Despite surrendering three consecutive goals and allowing No. 8 UMass to climb out of the deep hole that the Crimson [6-5-1] had dug for it with dominant play during the first period, Harvard regained its focus and staved off a second collapse in less than a week with a 5-3 victory.

“We came out with a lot of focus tonight,” Mazzoleni said. “I have not challenged a team and individuals like I’ve done the last two days with these kids.”

With Harvard reeling after watching its three-goal lead evaporate in just under 20 minutes and having freshman right winger Ryan Maki sent to the penalty box at 11:15 in the third period, the momentum so firmly controlled by the Crimson after the opening frame appeared to have shifted into the Minutemen’s corner. Despite six power plays after the start of the second period, Harvard had failed to extend its lead and appeared ready to be overtaken.

But that was before freshman winger Steve Mandes brought the jam.

Assistant captain and forward Tyler Kolarik intercepted an errant UMass pass at the blue line as the Minutemen [9-4-3] prepared to establish their power-play offensive set and quickly advanced the puck along the right-hand wall to Mandes before racing down the center of the ice in pursuit. As the pair descended on goal, the one defender left standing in their way chose to seal off Kolarik, leaving Mandes to close the deal.

Mandes—who had been added to the third line to increase Harvard’s lagging offensive production—snapped the puck high and to goaltender Tim Warner’s left. Warner reached behind his body and gloved the shot, but despite his best efforts, could not maintain his grip.

The puck squirted loose and fell directly into the goal, handing the Crimson the lead and Mandes his first collegiate goal.

“It just trickled in,” Mandes said. “I didn’t know if it was going in.”

The swing of the pendulum was halted and the Minutemen fell into their previous state of disarray. Desperate to reknot the score, UMass struggled to string together an effective attack, while Harvard returned to its aggressive play in the offensive zone, swarming the goal mouth and forcing several solid saves from Warner to keep his team close.

Once Warner was pulled, however, junior center Tom Cavanagh capped the scoring with an empty-net tally with two seconds remaining to seal the victory.

But it was the three hard-fought goals in the first 22 minutes that provided the Crimson with the safety net that eventually saved Harvard from collapse.

Peppering the UMass net with shots—36 in all on the night—the Crimson gave itself plenty of chances to score and it paid off early.