PROVIDENCE, R.I.—No one expected this to be easy. And it certainly wasn’t.

Then again, you just knew. At least those on the Harvard side did.

So when native son Tom Cavanagh, of nearby Warwick, capped last night’s 3-2, series-clinching win over Brown 7:35 into overtime, the celebration was more expected than spontaneous. The mood was one of relief rather than jubilation.

Because the destination that seemed to be a formality in October—Albany, N.Y., and the ECAC semifinals—had been realized. And all it took was four brilliant postseason victories to wipe out four months of agonizing uncertainty.

“I think everyone sensed we were going to win that game,” senior assistant captain Tyler Kolarik said after the narrow Game 2 victory. “I bet myself that Tommy was going to score, and I was right.”

Was he ever. Cavanagh, who had already etched his name in the Crimson’s postseason lore with his overtime winner against Clarkson in the 2002 ECAC semis, strung together a pair of brilliant games in his home state this weekend.

He had two assists in Harvard’s Game 1 victory on Friday night—both visionary passes—then slipped the rebound of Dylan Reese’s point shot past the fabled Yann Danis to vanquish the formidable Bears, who had swept the season series with Harvard.

But the interesting thing about Cavanagh’s goal—and Kolarik’s correct prediction—is that neither should’ve come to pass.

Senior winger Tim Pettit—who had scored the Crimson’s first goal in this, his school-record setting 132nd career game—beat Danis under the crossbar 1:40 into overtime. Understandably, his teammates began to celebrate while the Brown players sulked. Danis put his head down.

Only the goal light didn’t go on. And referee Scott Hansen didn’t signal. So everyone kept playing until Hansen blew the whistle to confer with his linesmen.

During the sidebar, Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni held his arms out as if appealing to some greater force. Assistant coach Gene Reilly did the same. But Hansen stuck with the original call. No goal. Heartbreak for the Crimson.

Video replays were inconclusive, but Harvard players confirmed afterward that the puck had, in fact, gone in. So did at least one Brown player.

“I thought it was in,” Kolarik said.

On the ice, though, the score remained 2-2, with the Crimson’s season very much in doubt. Just not in the players’ minds. “It was just one of those things,” Cavanagh said. “They call it a no-goal and you just have to move on.”

And move on they did, for six more minutes, until Cavanagh ensured their next move would be New York’s capital.

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.