Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni benched Welch the following night. Welch didn’t fault him for it. “Coach Mazzoleni has been consistent all year in sitting people when they take a poor penalty, and he saw that as a poor penalty, so he sat me,” Welch said.

Welch said he expected to see less chippy play this weekend because of the high stakes. “Our team hasn’t even thought about it,” he said. “This weekend is all about winning.”

Meanwhile, Sifers, a sophomore captain, acknowledged that the tension between him and Welch “might” carry over into this weekend. “Things always get stuck in the back of your head,” he said. “I’m not going to take a penalty against him, or try not to, at least, but if tensions rise and we meet, I wouldn’t be surprised if words were exchanged. But that’s playoff hockey, and hockey in general. It’s all part of the game. After the game, you’re gentlemen about it.

“Noah’s a great player, and it’s some of the strategy of the game to get under the skin of the other team’s best players. Sometimes that carries over...That’s probably not going through his mind right now, and I know it’s not going through mine. But if tensions do rise, we know that’s part of the game.”

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