BOSTON—The No. 9 Harvard men’s hockey team might have been playing the Beanpot’s consolation round last night at the FleetCenter, but the matchup with No. 2 Boston College could not have been more crucial, nor could the 4-1 loss at the hands of the Eagles have been more disheartening.

As teams nationwide jockey for position for an at-large NCAA Tournament berth, every game is of increased importance—and none presented the Crimson (15-7-2, 12-4-1 ECAC) a greater opportunity than last night’s, against the top team in the nation.

But if you’d watched Harvard play, you’d have agreed with its captain, Noah Welch, when he later said, “I don’t think guys wanted it that much tonight.”

It’s hard to explain why, exactly.

“We understood it was an important game,” said Crimson coach Ted Donato ’91. “I don’t think, in general, any group has to get up to play the No. 1 team in the country.”

But from the first drop of the puck, Harvard was one step behind, one step slower.

“I think [the Eagles] were able to get the game headed in the direction that they wanted to play,” Donato said, “and not necessarily that we wanted to play.”

And while it’s hard to say that the Crimson lost the game in the first period, it’s certainly difficult to say the team made any strides towards winning it, either.

Despite playing four of the first 10 minutes on the penalty kill, the Eagles (19-4-5, 12-1-5 Hockey East) outshot Harvard 15-7 in the first period, employing a balanced attack that kept goaltender Dov Grumet-Morris on his toes from the start.

The Crimson, meanwhile, struggled in the first frame, mustering only three power-play shots and giving up more than one quality chance to an aggressive BC defense.

The initial frame finished scoreless—but if first-period efforts didn’t help the cause, Harvard’s second-frame performance all but destroyed it.

Eagles center Ned Havern struck for a power-play tally just 1:15 into the middle period.

Grumet-Morris had left the goal, looking to clear the puck, but by the time he had made it back between the pipes he was too late to stop Havern’s deflection.

Exactly three minutes later, freshman Dan Bertram doubled the Eagles lead when he capitalized on an awkward carom off the corner of the boards that left the puck dangling dangerously, just feet from a defenseless Grumet-Morris.

“You can’t do anything about that,” said the netminder, the victim of a similarly fluky goal in last year’s consolation matchup, when the puck bounced off the glass, off his back, and into the goal.