For two periods, Harvard played Minnesota evenly. When senior Chad Morin gave the Crimson the only goal of the second period, it looked like momentum from Harvard’s decade-ending win over Quinnipiac might carry it to another upset.

But the Golden Gophers still had a few tricks up their sleeves as the hosts scored four goals in the third period to defeat the Crimson 5-2 in the Mariucci Arena. Only one of these came on a power play.

The period was perhaps the lowest point of Harvard’s doubleheader.

“We had far too many turnovers,” Alex Biega said.

Jacob Cepis wasted little time reclaiming the Gophers’ lead in the third period, taking advantage of period-opening power play to put Minnesota up 2-1 before a minute had expired.

The shots just kept coming at Richter, who made 40 saves Friday, and by the middle of the period the Gophers had racked up a 4-1 lead following goals by Nico Sacchetti and Zach Budish.

Minnesota’s third goal in the period looked to be a wakeup call for the Crimson, who started putting more pucks on the net after that point. Though the squad was unable to take advantage of a power play, Morin scored his second goal of the night—and of the season—a minute later to put Harvard back within two.

“He’s worked awful hard,” Biega said. “It’s great to see that kind of stuff.”

With the deficit reduced, the Crimson pulled Richter from net in a last-ditch effort to tie the game up. The plan backfired as Tony Lucia scored with just two seconds remaining to put the Gophers’ final margin of victory back to three.