The Crimson then entered the fourth quarter man-up, and it took only 18 seconds for Vandervelde to get the ball on the left hash and find the bottom-left corner of the net for his second tally of the game, giving Harvard the lead.

Duke evened the score, but committed another penalty with 8:31 remaining in the contest.

The entire crowd knew what was coming next.

The Crimson passed the ball around the back of the goal to Dwyer, who got it to Vandervelde about 15 yards from the goal on the right hash.

“The third shot was my most ambitious of the day,” Vandervelde said. “It was one of those that would either work out or would get me chewed out. But there was no doubt in my mind that I would shoot that ball.”

“I was feeling it,” Vandervelde added. “I just aimed for the top-left corner and it went in.”

Vandervelde’s second hat trick in that many games gave Harvard a 9-8 lead, but the Crimson eventually lost its second straight contest, 12-11.

Five of the sophomore’s seven goals have come while the team had an extra man.

In Harvard’s first six games of the season, the team’s man-up unit converted on 23.8 percent of its opportunities. Since Vandervelde joined the unit at Dartmouth, the Crimson has had a 58.3 percent success rate.

“He’s definitely earned more playing time,” Wojcik said. “He’ll be in the rotation more on offense going forward into the rest of the season.”