It still ranked as Kyle Richter’s biggest accomplishment, the highlight of the young goaltender’s impressive résumé. Thirty-six saves, no goals allowed, and, as a mere freshman, a shutout win over hockey powerhouse Boston College, at the time ranked No. 3 in the country.

One year later, with the Eagles preparing to return to the Bright Hockey Center, Richter had matured into the top goaltender in the country, while BC had slipped to No. 15 in national rankings. In their return to Cambridge, however, it was the Eagles who played like the nation’s best, chasing Richter from the game with a six-goal barrage.

According to Richter, penalties made much of the difference between the two contests.

“They got a lot of power-play chances [this time],” Richter said. “The power play got four goals…that was definitely a key.”

“It shows that there’s been a lot of times this year where Kyle’s bailed the rest of us out of trouble,” co-captain Dave MacDonald added, “and we didn’t do a whole lot today to bail him out of trouble.”

While last year’s blanking of BC was the highlight of Richter’s season, last night’s home rematch turned out to be much more similar to the low point of the 2006-07 campaign, a disastrous turn at Yale last February.

In that game, Richter was taken out at the start of the third period in after having allowed a 1-0 Harvard lead to turn into a 5-1 Bulldog blowout. Last night, he made it 2:55 into the third before he was pulled in favor of freshman Ryan Carroll with the score standing at 6-2.

Having boasted the best save percentage in the nation to start the night, Kyle Richter was sitting on the bench to end it.

“Getting pulled in the third, that’s not something you want to happen,” Richter said, adding, “I guess it’s a character-builder, if you want to look at it that way.”

SIN CITY

As the game transitioned from a mere loss to a laugher, the penalty minutes for both teams grew almost exponentially from period to period.

After a quiet opening frame in which it was whistled for just two minor penalties, the Crimson committed 12 minutes’ worth of penalties in the second period and a whopping 34 in the third. The Eagles, for their part, spent eight minutes in the box in the first period, 10 in the second, and 18 in the third, for a total of 76 penalty minutes between the two teams.

Frustration seemed to play a major role in the escalation of penalties, as a series of fights in the third period saw sophomore Chad Morin and BC’s Anthony Aiello sent off the ice with 10-minute game misconducts.

“I think the refs were trying to make sure that things didn’t get out of hand,” MacDonald said. “Obviously, in a game like that there are a lot of emotions at play, so I think a lot of the penalties may have been frustration.”

It was not a good night for Harvard to incur so many infractions, as its penalty kill unit was not as sharp as it had been in recent play. Taking advantage of their many power-play opportunities, the Eagles doubled the Crimson’s special-teams output, going 4-for-9 with an extra man.

“It wasn’t about BC, it was about us,” MacDonald said. “If anything, it was [that] we strayed from our game plan. We’re usually pretty tight defensively, strong on the penalty kill, and I think there were more than a few times tonight where that wasn’t really our team out there.”

TWO-MINUTE MINORS

Freshman Michael Biega scored twice, bringing his team-leading total to six goals on the season…Morin was assessed 14 penalty minutes on just one play—a two-minute minor for roughing, a two-minute minor for elbowing, and a 10-minute game misconduct…Ryan Carroll’s action was the first of his collegiate career…Despite the lopsided score, Harvard outshot the Eagles, 36-27…BC scored on 26 percent of its shots on goal.

—Staff writer Daniel J. Rubin-Wills can be reached at drubin@fas.harvard.edu.