“Morris—I thought he played great,” Cornell coach Mike Schafer said. “I thought time and again he made big saves for them.”

But Grumet-Morris couldn’t contain the Big Red forever. Though he turned in 14 saves on the power play alone, the seven Crimson penalties provided Cornell with one too many opportunities.

Stationed at the point on the Big Red’s 5-on-4, Ryan O’Byrne whipped Daniel Pegoraro’s pass high through traffic and past blinded Grumet-Morris for the clincher.

“I think it’s pretty obvious it was special teams that was the difference in the game,” Grumet-Morris said. “The difference in the game was power play and penalty kill. Their penalty kill got a goal, their power play got a goal—2-0 Cornell.”

COLGATE 4, HARVARD 1

HAMILTON, N.Y.—Grumet-Morris had been consistenly solid in net, Harvard had just scored its first goal in 149:42 to knot the score at one in the third period, and the momentum appeared to be in the Crimson’s corner. Just 5:38 later, the Raiders (7-2-0, 2-0-0) led 3-1.

Harvard (0-2-1, 0-2-1) held the upper hand for much of the first two periods. Its offense clicked, relative to the night before, shots tested Colgate netminder Steve Silverthorn, and Donato’s lineup shake ups appeared to have spiced up the Crimson’s play. Even Jon Smyth’s power play garbage goal on a rebound at 8:21 in the second couldn’t derail Harvard’s advantaged position.

Unlike the night before, the Crimson was outworking its opponent, an effort which at last paid off at 2:05 in the third period.

Freshman winger Jon Pelle battled in the corner to keep the puck in the zone, eventually squirting it behind the net towards center Brendan Bernakevitch. Passing diagonally across the goalmouth, he hit Dylan Reese perfectly in stride out in front, setting up the sophomore blueliner’s first goal of the season.

“We’re tied 1-1, and I thought that we had just as good a chance of winning that game as they did,” Donato said.

But Colgate caught the Crimson up ice just two minutes later, allowing a 2-on-1 rush on Grumet-Morris’ net. Kyle Wilson carried the puck along the left boards before crossing to Daryl McKinnon at the right post, who beat Grumet-Morris to the doorstep for the goal.

“They came right back two shifts later, the next shift, and went ahead,” captain Noah Welch said. “That was probably the big momentum shift that dictated the way the third period went.”

Rejuvenated by the go-ahead tally, Colgate ratcheted up the pressure in the Crimson zone, beating Harvard to loose pucks and peppering Grumet-Morris.

Amidst a blitz of activity in front of the Crimson net, Ryan Smyth ripped a shot from the right circle that deflected off Grumet-Morris’ blocker and in.

The Crimson subsequently failed to control the pace of play, sending an extra defender cheating forward in the hopes of netting an equalizer at the cost of a series of quick breaks back in the other direction. But Grumet-Morris stood firm, turning in 36 saves, 16 of them in the third period.

“He’s kinda the one thing we can rely on right now,” Welch said. “You build teams from the goalie out, I told the guys, and right now our goalie’s playing well. That’s kinda what’s keeping us in in...This guy’s back there battling for us, and that gives everyone on the team a lot of life.”

Marc Fulton’s empty-netter at 18:35 provided the final margin.

—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.