Vesey scored twice on the power play, and an aggressive Harvard forecheck limited the Engineers (4-6-0, 3-1-0) to only 14 shots on goal Friday night in Troy, N.Y.

“We did a lot of good things offensively,” Donato said. “[The team] really controlled the play on both ends of the rink.”

Michalek recorded his third career shutout while Hart and sophomore Luke Esposito added a goal apiece on the second line.

Vesey struck first with just over a minute and a half left in the first period. In a back-and-forth exchange, the junior forward one-timed a quick feed in the slot from sophomore line mate Alex Kerfoot to beat RPI goaltender Jason Kasdorf stick-side.

Despite leading the team in goals last year, Vesey had been held scoreless in his last eight games.

“I think [scoring early] was kind of a relief and allowed me to play more relaxed out there,” Vesey said.

Harvard carried the energy of the breakthrough into a dominant final two frames.

Hart faked out Kasdorf from behind the net to put the Crimson up a pair with a sneaky wrap-around at 10:09 in the second period. Four minutes later, Vesey stuffed in his second goal past a scrum in the crease to put Harvard up three.

The Crimson quickly deflated any hopes for a change of pace for the Engineers in the third. Hart found Esposito for a fourth strike just over a minute into the last period.

“We played very much to our identity,” Vesey said. “We played with a lot of speed and let our skills take over. We totally swarmed RPI, and I thought all four goals were really nice plays.”

— Crimson staff writer Michael D. Ledecky can be reached at michael.ledecky@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @mdledecky.