Then, Ciavaglia asked the puck out to dance and ran circles around a dizzy Mezzatti for Harvard's fifth goal.

"Their talented forwards are good with the stick," Spartan Coach Ron Mason said. "We had a three-goal lead and we should have tried to keep it a three-goal lead."

Tonight, the game will go into the fourth period. After the Spartans took a 4-1 lead in the first period, the Crimson outscored the Spartans, 4-2, in the next two periods.

"Those goals were huge," Pawloski said. "You could feel the momentum changing."

Things were changing at Bright. You could sense it in the bowed heads of the Spartans. The team that once had a four-goal lead. And even though Michigan "won" this game, Harvard still could celebrate its "loss."

"We just didn't skate and they were flying in the first period," Harvard Coach Bill Cleary said. "But we didn't lose our cool. We just kept banging back."

Both teams now have an entire day to think about the game's next three periods. The Spartans can think about how it could have entered the second part of the game with a comfortable lead.

"Right now, we're playing halfway through the second period," Pawloski said. "The momentum's in our favor. We're coming [out tonight] with fire in our eyes."

The Crimson had fire in its sticks and skates in the third period of the 120-minute total-goals game.

The Spartans had their heads bowed, even though they "won" the game.