Junior Dov Grumet-Morris (30) hurries to his feet after blocking a shot during Harvard's 4-0 victory Saturday against Dartmouth, as sophomore Peter Hafner (3) and senior David McCulloch (21) battle Dartmouth's Mike Ouellette (28) for the puck.

Right out of the gate, Harvard goaltender Dov Grumet-Morris watched the referee as his 22nd birthday celebration began to go horribly, horribly wrong.

Only 3:03 into Saturday night’s regular-season-ending game against Dartmouth—and 15 seconds into the first Big Green power play—Crimson defenseman Ryan Lannon was whistled for tripping, setting the stage for nearly two full minutes of 5-on-3 hockey.

But a funny thing happened. Grumet-Morris turned Harvard’s rash of penalties on its ear, foiling not one, but two 5-on-3 disadvantages on the game and leading the Crimson (12-14-3, 10-10-2 ECAC) to a spectacular 4-0 win against the Big Green (12-8-9, 10-5-7).

That came on the heels of a 6-4 Friday loss to Vermont (9-19-4, 7-13-1), a game in which Harvard was burned for goals on three of six power plays and couldn’t stay out of the penalty box.

The weekend upturn in special teams play was a good sign for the Crimson, which ended the regular season in sixth place in the ECAC and clinched home ice in the first round of the playoffs.

The ECAC tournament begins Friday. The Catamounts, whose win against Harvard this weekend was its fifth straight, will revisit Bright Hockey Center for a best-of-three first round set.

HARVARD 4, DARTMOUTH 0

For the second-straight night Saturday, Harvard was bit by the penalty bug.

This time, the Crimson bit back.

Fighting off five-on-threes in each of the first two periods and killing eight power plays, Harvard overpowered Dartmouth 4-0 at Bright Hockey Center Saturday night with the help of a spectacular performance by goaltender Dov Grumet-Morris on his 22nd birthday.

“I thought [Dov] was exceptional,” Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni said.

The shutout, which was Grumet-Morris’ second this season, did not come easily. The junior goaltender stopped 40 shots on goal, including 33 in the first two periods. Twenty were during the Big Green’s eight power plays.

The biggest stops of the night, however, came on the two five-on-three disadvantages. During the first, which began at 3:03 in the first period, Grumet-Morris stopped a flurry of Dartmouth shots on goal—six, to be exact—in less than two minutes.

The second came at 8:11 in the second period. With only three defenders crowded deep in the Crimson defensive zone, Grumet-Morris staved off five more shots on goal. When the penalties were killed, the sellout crowd at Bright Hockey Center rose to its feet.

“Any time you can kill that off, especially when you’re playing at home, the crowd really gets into it,” Harvard senior forward Tim Pettit said. “If you can survive something like that and capitalize, it just changes everything.”