The lamp lit, and captain Smith was mobbed by his teammates at center ice. The goal gave Harvard a 2-1 lead—and the Dutchmen would not catch up.

Smith was happy about the goal and excited about leading his team to a big win. Crimson coach Mark Mazzoleni was even more impressed.

“I thought he was very assertive, very physical and made a difference out there,” Mazzoleni said. “I thought he played a very good game.”

Harvard fans can expect two things of Smith down the stretch: one, more ice time, and two, more overdrive. Against the Dutchmen, the captain was especially hungry to wreak havoc on Union.

“Yeah, I think that’s something that any player would [be], not having been in the night before,” Smith said, adding, “I just wanted to come out and play as hard as I could.”

Like the Crimson’s hot streak after the Dutchmen goal at 0:20 of the first period, Smith’s recovery after Friday’s benching was a clinic in failing to get rattled—and that quality could help Harvard get a leg up on the final week-and-a-half of the regular season.

After the game, Smith talked about the team’s response to adversity, but might as well have been describing his own.

“If you let it get to you and you let it take the energy that you have out of you, you’re in big trouble,” he said. “But if you can rebound well and keep coming hard, it’s not too bad.”

—Staff writer Alex McPhillips can be reached at rmcphill@fas.harvard.edu.