In all the Crimson launched 12 of its 34 shots during the opening frame to set the game’s tone.

But Union broke Harvard’s stranglehold early in the second period, counterpunching with pressure to match the Crimson’s first period display.

With 2:35 gone by in the period, Joel Beal brought the Dutchmen within one, stepping in front of a pass at the red line and entering the Harvard zone along the boards to Grumet-Morris’ left before blasting a shot that snuck by the netminder on his stick side.

But the Crimson held firm, closing down the Union offense in front of Grumet-Morris for the final 37:35 with pounding physical play that overwhelmed the weary Dutchmen squad, which had earned an overtime tie against Yann Danis and Brown the night before and opened with three lines, not four.

“I kind of shortened the bench to go to three lines to try to combat their speed because they had so much speed against us by stretching us out,” Leaman said. “I think that hurt us in the end because we really got tired, and we were having trouble getting to the loose pucks.”

Rensselaer 3, Harvard 2

A twenty-second letdown against Union was manageable. Its 3:31 counterpart Friday night against RPI proved disastrous, as two late goals sent Harvard to a 3-2 defeat.

Despite doubling the Engineers’ shot output, 36-18, and dominating play throughout—surrendering just eight shots over the final 40 minutes—the Crimson was knocked back on its heels as RPI (16-11-2, 10-6-1) mounted its late-game surge.

“I thought if there was puck possession it would have been about 70 percent to 30 percent,” Mazzoleni said. “I give a lot of credit to [Marsters]. We couldn’t dent him.”

With just under four minutes to go, Harvard’s lead, while threatened, seemed secure. The Crimson had fallen back into a strong defensive posture to prevent odd-man rushes and appeared ready to hold on to the one-goal lead and two critical points in the race for a first-round bye in the upcoming ECAC playoffs.

But with the Engineers swarming the crease, Scott Basiuk sent a shot into the heavy traffic in front of Grumet-Morris. Though it left Basiuk’s stick with little zip and soaring off-target, the puck appeared to hit Packard’s skate, redirecting its path to the back of the net to draw the teams even at two.

Suddenly faced with the prospect of a split or worse on the critical weekend series, Harvard launched an all-out offensive on Nathan Marsters’ net, the best chance coming with just two minutes remaining.

Bernakevitch carried the puck into RPI’s zone along the right boards before running headlong into the Engineers’ defense. Adroitly sliding the puck between the first defender’s legs, Bernakevitch sped towards the net to avoid a second before quickly blasting a shot just over the top of the left corner in what proved to be the Crimson’s last best chance.

One minute later, the Engineers broke out of the neutral zone with a four-on-three rush, which Harvard appeared to contain by maintaining a line of defense at the circles. But Oren Eizenman dropped the puck back to Ryan Smith, positioned straight ahead of Grumet-Morris, who rocketed into the top shelf on Grumet-Morris’ glove side to retake the lead for RPI with just 54 seconds left.

“We need to play the full 60 minutes,” said senior forward Tyler Kolarik. “It’s been our problem all year and you could see what happens out there.You play 57 minutes and you don’t get the win.”