McCulloch, who had not scored since last season’s NCAA Regional game, slapped it past a stunned Nick Boucher.
“It’s a challenge to play goalie in this rink,” Mazzoleni said. “The ice is rough, so now you want to get out of the net and play the puck.”
Freshman wing Charlie Johnson put the Crimson ahead 2-0 six and a half minutes later, as he one-timed his fourth goal of the season off a nice feed down low by captain Dominic Moore.
The Big Green, though, cut the Harvard lead in half 1:37 into the second, as Kent Gillings put a wrister five-hole on Grumet-Morris.
“The only goal I think you could fault [Grumet-Morris] for was that first one,” Mazzoleni said.
But 17 seconds later, Dartmouth defenseman Brian Van Abel went in for obstruction-interference, and it took Harvard junior Tim Pettit less than a minute on the power play to one-time his 17th goal of the season past Boucher.
The Crimson took a 4-1 lead at 7:59 of the second on a tremendous individual effort by sophomore wing Brendan Bernakevitch, who was playing in just his third game since the Beanpot because of a hip injury.
Bernakevitch stormed down the left wing in transition, all the way to the bottom of the faceoff circle, before making an abrupt stop. Unmolested by Dartmouth defensemen Pete Summerfelt and Trevor Byrne, Bernakevitch looped back toward the boards and walked back to where he started before beating Boucher top shelf.
It was Bernakevitch’s first goal in over a month, and it chased Boucher, who was replaced by sophomore Dan Yacey.
At that point, the game appeared to be a rout. It ended up being anything but.
With the win, Harvard virtually assured itself a spot in the NCAA tournament. The Crimson moved up to No. 12 in the USCHO.com PairWise Rankings, boosted by losses by Ohio State and Northern Michigan in the CCHA tournament and Minnesota State-Mankato and Minnesota-Duluth in the WCHA.
Even then, Mazzoleni said his team has plenty to play for against Cornell.
“I guarantee you that we’ll play hard,” he said. “We’re going to have to bring our ‘A’ game, and we’re capable of bringing our ‘A’ game.”