It also delivered Mazzoleni’s 300th coaching victory. “That just means I’m getting old,” he said with a laugh.

But all of this—the victory, the relief, Mazzoleni’s milestone—was very uncertain midway through the second period. The Bears led 2-0 on—get ready for this—Shane Mudryk’s first two goals of the season.

Mudryk, a fourth-line senior winger, scored both against Harvard’s fourth line of Rob Fried, Rob Flynn and Dan Murphy.

The first came at 12:31 of the first period, when Mudryk took a pass from Joe Bauer and led his linemates on a 3-on-2 convoy before beating Dov Grumet-Morris low to his glove side. Mudryk struck again midway through the second, pouncing on a wayward rebound of Paul Crosty’s point shot.

But less than 30 seconds later—before the rink announcer finished saying Crosty’s name—the Crimson drew back to within one. Sophomore Charlie Johnson threw a point shot on net that Pettit flipped into the air and (barely) over the line.

Harvard outshot the Bears in the period, 15-9, but couldn’t even it before the third, setting up a scenario similar to the Crimson’s dramatic Game 2 victory over Brown in the 2002 playoffs.

The Bears took a one-goal lead into the third that night and, just as happened two years ago, Harvard knotted it before the final frame was half old.

You could’ve guessed this year’s goal-scorer—Kolarik—since it is March and, well, he hadn’t scored a goal in the game yet. But there he was in the slot, hammering away at a gorgeous feed from Noah Welch for his 21st career ECAC tournament point in 16 games—and second goal in as many nights.

Kolarik’s goal came on the power play. For the series, the Crimson was 3-8 with the extra man. Brown was 1-11. “Special teams won the series,” Kolarik said.

So it’s on to the ECAC semifinals for the fourth straight season. The last time Harvard made that many in a row was 1985-1989, which included one ECAC title and one national championship.

And speaking of history, the parallels between this year’s tournament and the 2002 run are growing more by the minute.

In 2002, the Crimson redeemed a crummy regular season with an ECAC title that began with a 4-1, 2-1 sweep of Brown, with Game 2 ending in double-overtime.

This season, Harvard has taken steps to redeem an equally crummy regular season with a 4-2, 3-2 sweep of Brown, with Game 2 ending in overtime.

Crimson players and coaches have carefully avoided saying the words “two years ago.” But that’s getting harder to do.

“This one went one overtime, and the other one went two overtimes,” Grumet-Morris pointed out, searching for a way to differentiate the two.

But isn’t that being a little nitpicky?

“Yeah,” he conceded. “That is being nitpicky.”

With Saturday’s win, Harvard’s icemen became the first to have their ticket punched to Albany. So, they have extra time to do a lot of things: celebrate a little, relax, maybe study for midterms.

But nitpick? No way. After the turnaround they’ve enjoyed, there’s no time for that.

—Staff writer Jon Paul Morosi can be reached at morosi@fas.harvard.edu.