Sure, the opponent wasn’t BC or BU or Maine, but the Huskies still had those blue “Hockey East” patches on the right side of their sweaters, which had squelched so many Harvard efforts during the past several seasons seemingly by themselves.

Still, it wasn’t perfect.

As much as Harvard fans have enjoyed getting to know FleetCenter staff during idle first-period conversations in ten—count ‘em, ten—consecutive 5 p.m. Beanpot games, they’d much prefer to pack some extra Maalox and watch their boys in the nightcap.

For their part, though, the Crimson players took the right approach on Monday.

“You’re disappointed to be playing in the consolation game, but this is down the stretch of the season,” Moore said. “This game was as important as any. We lost last week, but there’s no time to get consoled.”

Because as Harvard proved last year—when things looked much, much worse than they do now—there is life A.B. (After Beanpot).

That part of the puck calendar starts this weekend, with the Crimson’s absolutely critical home series with an upstart Colgate (3-1 in its last four games) and rival Cornell, which is now two points ahead of Harvard atop the ECAC standings and—as always—might have a fan or two more than the Crimson this weekend at Bright Hockey Center.

The magnitude of that series—and how much it matters for the Crimson’s stake to a possible ECAC regular season title and/or NCAA tournament berth—made Monday night’s win all the more important.

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