Within a week, McNally revealed that he would be out for the remainder of the regular season. Nonetheless, holding out hope that his teammates could orchestrate a lengthy postseason run, McNally refused to rule out a return. After Harvard made quick work of Brown in the opening round, the defenseman’s optimism came to fruition the ensuing weekend.

At Ingalls Rink for the Crimson’s quarterfinal series at Yale, McNally took the ice. In Harvard’s first taste of an elimination game, the defenseman served as an immediate sparkplug, scoring the equalizer with 3:30 remaining.

With the stakes even higher on Saturday, McNally made up for lost time again. From the right faceoff circle, the blue-liner added what proved to be the game-winning wristshot to extend his side’s advantage to 3-1.

“I know Pat,” Donato said. “He came back to win the championship, and he knew that he could be a big part of it. And certainly he was.”

BACK IN BLACK

McNally missed all but that one game in Ithaca on the back half of the Crimson’s schedule, putting the defenseman in similar company as one of his classmates, Colin Blackwell.

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After sitting out the majority of the last two seasons due to recurring concussion issues, the fourth-year forward returned for the season’s final weekend. Afterwards, Blackwell acknowledged that he came back to provide a difference.

“As one of the seniors on the team and [one of the] leaders, I kind of pride myself on getting the boys going and trying to get a little spark,” Blackwell said on Feb. 28.

Over the ensuing seven games, that’s exactly what he did, coming up with five goals and an assist to lift his squad past three of the top four seeded teams in the ECAC. After battling back from another injury scare on Friday, the second-liner clinched the title on Saturday, finding the empty Colgate net with 55 seconds remaining to jumpstart the Harvard celebration.

“I think we certainly were hurting with more than our share of injuries, but I think we have a lot of unselfish players who put the team first,” Donato said. “[I’m] very proud to be involved with this group, and they’re very deserving of a championship.”

—Staff writer Jake Meagher can be reached at jake.meagher@thecrimson.com.