What the unassuming Lederman should have said, of course, is that he showed up when it counted.

With under six minutes left, and after the first of two costly Yale penalties—both drawn by Harvard freshman Alex Meintel—the winger fired a rocket past Gartner that brought the Bright Hockey Center crowd to its feet.

“I actually didn’t see it go in,” Lederman said of his second collegiate goal. “I followed through, so I was facing the crowd when I scored, but I was going for the left side of the net, and that’s where it went.”

The goal was assisted by captain Noah Welch and freshman Jon Pelle, the latter of whom would go on to steal the night with three points.

It was he who broke the 1-1 tie less than three minutes later with a wrister off a pinpoint feed from assistant captain Tom Cavanagh.

“Cav threw the puck out towards me from behind net,” Pelle explained. “I kind of just one-touched it towards the net hoping something would happen, and it looked like it hit off the post, maybe hit off his pad, and scrambled over the line.”

With 33 seconds left, senior Brendan Bernakevitch netted the Crimson’s second power-play goal of the night—with assists by Pelle and Cavanagh—and sealed a three-goal Harvard comeback in the final 5:36 of regulation.

“It would have been very easy to say, ‘Listen, their goalie’s playing great, we just haven’t got the bounces, Yale stole one off us,’” said Donato, who earned his first collegiate coaching victory Friday night. “But our guys just wouldn’t give up, they wouldn’t quit. They really upped the pressure, I think, instead of going the other way when Yale scored.”

After Lederman’s goal in the waning minutes, the momentum—and the buzz in the Bright air—seemed Harvard’s. And it was earned.

“Harvard certainly had the edge in Grade-A chances,” Taylor said, “and that’s what this game ultimately boils down to.”

—Staff writer Rebecca A. Seesel can be reached at seesel@fas.harvard.edu.