Junior center Tom Cavanagh tied the game on a hard shot from the right face-off circle at 11:47 of the third.

“We found a way to beat [Mayotte] in the third by getting a lot of traffic in front and going to the net hard,” Pettit said.

Pettit’s goal—the game winner—was more indicative of the Crimson’s ability to go hard to the net than any of Harvard’s other tallies. He scored it with 1:01 remaining in regulation by fighting hard for the puck in front of the net.

Sophomore defenseman Tom Walsh fired it in from the point and Mayotte, like he did all game, stopped the initial shot. Harvard’s top line of Pettit, Cavanagh and assistant captain Kolarik all charged the net and got their sticks on the puck, but nothing got by Mayotte until Pettit found the puck amidst the scrum of forwards and defenders in front and fired it in, lifting it over a prone Mayotte.

The three unanswered goals gave Harvard the win and, temporarily, brought it back to .500 for the year. It also seemed to set the Crimson up nicely for its game on Saturday against RPI.

“This could be the ticket for us to really go on a run,” Pettit said.

But it was not.

Harvard will look to get back to its winning ways on Friday night against Cornell.

—Staff writer Timothy M. McDonald can be reached at tmcdonal@fas.harvard.edu.