Jake Horton scored early in the second period less than a minute after Vesey’s first goal to give Harvard a 4-0 lead. The sophomore forward redirected a behind-goal pass from sophomore center Sean Malone past the pads of Ernst, whom Whittet immediately pulled in favor of classmate Tyler Steel.

Fourth-year Crimson goaltender Steve Michalek (28 saves), meanwhile, looked confident in his first postseason win.

“He made some important saves and had some flurries of saves,” Donato said. “Not only did he make the saves, but he looked calm and collected back there, and I think that is something that is kind of felt throughout the team.”

First line forwards senior Matt Lorito and junior Nick Lappin had Brown’s only goals of the night. Lorito struck from the left point on the power play seconds after the expiration of a two-man advantage at 11:17 to draw the game to 4-1. Lappin added the game’s final marker with a close shot through traffic with just over three minutes left in regulation.

As time expired, the Bears looked ahead to Saturday. The game ended in a line-wide altercation with 1:19 left after Anderson boarded a Brown player on the right side of the Harvard zone, leading to penalties to three players. Whittet’s squad will need to find something extra this weekend in order to avoid an early end to its season.

“They’re a very gifted hockey team,” Whittet said of the Crimson. “We gave them some life, and they were really coming in waves on that forecheck. We were over-handling pucks, and I thought our [defensemen] got overwhelmed a little bit.”

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