Inching forward in the crease as Spina weaved down the ice, the netminder managed to deflect the attempt with his glove, holding his team’s advantage and quashing a potential BC uprising.

“I think that when you stop a penalty shot,” Grumet-Morris said, “the most obvious and most important part of that is that they didn’t score, and in a 2-1 game, that is important.”

Pelle knocked in the Crimson’s final tally to give the home team some breathing room, though nearly 17 minutes of play still remained in the third frame.

Harvard stuck to its game, though, and the anticipation building in Bright was palpable.

As the final seconds melted away and the Crimson staved off a BC drive that included a 1:29 of an extra skater in the stead of its goalie, Matti Kaltiainen, the fans finally let their screams out.

Harvard was about to beat the Eagles. An unranked squad was about to down the nation’s top team.

The Crimson—which had managed just a trio of goals and no wins in its first three contests, going 1-for-17 on the power play—was on the verge of a three-power-play-goal win.

“We knew we were the underdogs,” Pelle said. “Every guy in that locker room believed that we could win. We knew that probably everyone outside the room didn’t think so, but we believed it, and we knew that was what it would take to get the win.”

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