The No. 11 Harvard men’s hockey team punched its ticket for a return trip to Albany Saturday evening, surviving a third-period comeback surge by St. Lawrence to sweep its ECAC quarterfinal series with a 3-2 victory, likely locking up an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament in the process.

“I think we worked as hard as we could,” Saints coach Joe Marsh said. “They’re an excellent team, an opportunistic team, and a great defensive team with an absolutely fabulous goaltender. We played as hard as we could. We just came up one short.”

Special teams provided the difference for the Crimson (20-8-3, 15-5-2), which short-circuited a five-minute St. Lawrence power play in the first period, notched a man advantage tally late in the second, and, most importantly, knocked home the game winner short handed in the third.

With freshman Mike Taylor in the box for tripping, forwards Steve Mandes and Tyler Magura slipped free and counterattacked 2-on-1 from center ice. Mandes carried the puck into the Saints’ zone along the right side, drawing defender Mike Madill before handing off to Magura.

The rookie advanced on Mike McKenna’s net, then banked his shot off Madill and into the top left hand corner of the goal as the St. Lawrence blueliner slid across the ice, staking Harvard to a 3-1 lead with 8:17 to play.

“I think it might have tipped off the defenseman’s stick,” Magura said. “I’m not positive. All I know is that I saw it go in, and I was pretty happy.”

Facing elimination, the Saints (17-19-2, 9-12-1) rallied, repeatedly testing Crimson goaltender Dov Grumet-Morris, though struggling to manufacture many shots from in close. But after pulling McKenna for an extra skater with 3:35 remaining, St. Lawrence at last broke through, as Max Taylor poked home a loose rebound as Grumet-Morris lay sprawled on the ice with 66 seconds to go.

The tally proved to be nothing more than the Saints’ last gasp, however. Though Harvard could not manage an insurance goal—the Crimson hit the post twice from long distance in the final minute—St. Lawrence did not seriously threaten to tie the score.

“I think we feel very fortunate to be moving on,” Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91 said. “It was a very difficult, physical, tough series. And I have to say we expected it to be like that.”

Though not dominant early, the Crimson had certainly shed the rusty play that characterized its 2-0 win Friday evening by the middle of the first period. Ironically, the spark energizing Harvard’s skaters came in the form of a five-minute charging major assessed to Crimson freshman Dave Watters at 9:09.

A similar infraction against St. Lawrence one night earlier had allowed forward Charlie Johnson to stake the Crimson to a 1-0 lead, but the Saints could neither score nor muster much of a presence in the Harvard zone and managed just three shots on goal, one or two fewer than the penalty killers enjoyed.

A shade under three minutes into the St. Lawrence man advantage, Magura’s clearing effort off the lefthand boards caromed to Mandes as he dashed into the Saints’ zone all by himself. As he reached out to corral the de facto pass, McKenna slid out of his crease and took out Mandes’ legs, preventing him from pulling the puck back across his body to shoot.

Less than a minute later, Taylor collected the puck in the neutral zone and shook his marker with a deft pass to himself off the boards.

Suddenly all alone, the freshman skated in to the right faceoff circle and curled towards the goal before clanking his wrist shot off the near post.

“Killing off a five-minute major really gives you a little more momentum, and it was really big for us,” Magura said. “The penalty kill was really great tonight.”