It was anxiously, almost eerily quiet during the third period of last night’s game between the Harvard men’s hockey team and No. 1 Boston College (BC). The crowd filling much of the Bright Hockey Center would catch its breath audibly, then force nervous applause during stoppages of play. But for the most part, it remained silent, afraid to jinx the spectacle unfolding on the ice.

Finally—with just two-and-a-half minutes remaining—Eagles’ senior blueliner Andrew Alberts tucked away in the penalty box and the Crimson (3-2-1, 2-2-1 ECACHL) guarding a 3-1 lead—the fans relaxed and were ready to heckle.

“Overrated,” the Harvard student section jeered at BC’s skaters as the latter group milled about in frustration as their chances and perch atop the national rankings slipped away.

“Good college hockey game,” surmised Eagles coach Jerry York after the fact. “We worked hard, and they were just better than we were tonight.”

But if you’d watched the early minutes of last night’s contest, you wouldn’t have seen that coming. BC (4-2-1, 2-0-1 Hockey East) tallied its lone goal just 62 seconds into the game, beating Harvard goalie Dov Grumet-Morris and taking the lead.

If you’d bitten your tongue and kept watching from the stands of the Bright Hockey Center, though, your patience would have been rewarded in spades.

“They did a very good job of coming out at the beginning of the game and taking it to us,” Grumet-Morris admitted. “So you give BC credit for playing well on the road at the beginning.

“I thought we responded well,” the netminder added, “because in a game, in a season, that’s going to happen.”

Indeed, Harvard entered the locker room for the first intermission up 2-1, the result of a gritty, aggressive offensive showing, opportunistic special teams and a blueline unit that kept the Eagles entirely off their collective game.

“I thought they played well,” Crimson coach Ted Donato ’91 said of his defensive corps. “We never gave [BC] any opportunities to spend as much time in the zone as they wanted, and that was key for us.

“We didn’t want to let their forwards have the puck with any time and space, because we know how good they can be with it.”

And with confidence behind the blueline, Harvard marched forward, attacking the Eagles relentlessly.

Freshman Jon Pelle, who stole the show last weekend with a three-point night against Yale and earned the ECACHL’s Rookie of the Week honors for his effort, was first to put the Crimson on the board, erasing the BC lead for good.

Skating to the right of Eagles goalie Matti Kaltiainen, Pelle popped in a rebound from the slightest of angles.

“[Senior Andrew Lederman] took the puck up high and good shot off,” said the freshman, who earned his second multi-point game last night. “The rebound came out to me and I corralled it and brought it over to the forehand. I looked up and didn’t see anybody in the net, so I just put it in.”