“I know we had, obviously, a real tough time with their guy,” Wildcat coach Walt Kyle said, “and our guy was real tough as well.”

So tough that after 65 scoreless minutes of play and an official tie, the two squads faced off in a shootout to determine which would crack the finals.

Fittingly, the first two attempts—by Northern Michigan’s John Miller and the Crimson’s Brendan Bernakevitch—bounced off the pipes yet again.

Wildcat Andrew Sarauer followed with a quick goal that upped the pressure, but Lederman knotted the shootout two skaters later with a shot that bounced off Tarkki’s glove and into the goal.

Immediately after, Northern Michigan’s Darin Olver lifted the puck over Grumet-Morris, but Harvard’s Dan Murphy countered with a quick snapshot across Tarkki’s body.

The 10-skater shootout ended in yet another tie, this one 2-2, and so a sudden-death shootout followed. Olver scored immediately, going top-shelf on Grumet-Morris, and Tarkki miraculously—and barely—stymied Bernakevitch’s attempt with his left pad.

The Wildcats skaters rushed the ice and enveloped Tarkki in celebration. On the other end, the Crimson skaters consoled Grumet-Morris one-by-one.

It would enter the record books as a tie, but once again, Harvard would not get its crack at a tournament title. Nor would it get a crack at No. 1 Minnesota, which would go on to defeat Merrimack 6-2 in the evening’s matchup.

“It was one of those games where it really looked like the team that was going to get the first goal would win,” Donato said. “I didn’t realize it was going to be in the shootout, though.”

—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Rebecca A. Seesel can be reached at seesel@fas.harvard.edu.