The Crimson outshot its guests, 11-2, in the first period and took a 2-0 lead on a pair of goals by Brendan Bernakevitch. Fried deftly redirected a point shot from Welch in the final minute of the second for a 3-0 lead, then set up Dennis Packard’s one-timer for a four-goal cushion 4:24 into the third.

Then things got interesting. Very interesting.

Scott Mifsud, UVM’s pesky second-line pivot, scored half a minute later to make it 4-1.

But besides ending Dov Grumet-Morris’ shutout streak at 184:23—the longest for a Harvard goaltender since at least 1987—no one thought much of it.

That changed when Bernakevitch went off for hooking with 4:15 left. Sneddon pulled goaltender Travis Russell to give his team a 6-on-4 advantage, which became a rare 6-on-3 when defenseman Peter Hafner took a seat for cross-checking 45 seconds later.

“That was a little weird,” Harvard captain Kenny Smith admitted. “I’ve only seen that one other time in my career.”

The emotions of Crimson fans may have begun at “weird,” but they quickly reached “worried” and finally “panicked,” as Mifsud and Jaime Sifers scored to make it a one-goal game with 2:20 remaining.

The pessimistic among the 1,830 at Bright flashed back to Nov. 14, when Harvard blew two-goal lead and lost to Princeton.

But there would be no collapse this time. The Crimson clamped down at full strength and exhaled when Fried scored in the final minute.

“Pretty crazy ending,” confirmed Grumet-Morris, who stopped 40 of 43 shots during the series and posted his third shutout of the season in Game 1. “But it’s the playoffs. You can’t take anything for granted.”

“We gave it everything we had,” said Sneddon, reflecting on his first postseason at UVM.

“Our tanks were running low going into the series, and I think [our players] emptied them for the staff and for the program.”

GAME 1: HARVARD 3, VERMONT 0

A perfect penalty kill and continued contributions from the Class of 2007 powered Harvard’s 3-0 victory on Friday.

The Vermont power play was 6-13 against the Crimson during the regular season, but only 2-13 this weekend, including an 0-6 performance in Friday’s Game 1.