The first came after the Dutchmen had nearly taken the lead early in the second period, thanks to four minutes of power play time in a 4:11 span. But the moment Crimson defender Noah Welch stepped out of the box after a roughing minor, sophomore forward Tom Cavanagh one-timed a gorgeous pass from freshman defenseman Tom Walsh past Mayotte to give Harvard a 1-0 lead.

The Crimson’s next tally was the game-winner, both literally and in spirit. Just as it appeared the Dutchmen would go into the second intermission trailing by only one, a great individual effort by Harvard senior Brett Nowak just before the horn gave Grumet-Morris all the goal support he would need.

Uncontested by the Dutchmen, who looked winded at the end of an up-and-down period, Nowak looped around a pair of defenders and walked into the high slot, snapping his eighth goal of the season past Mayotte with just four-tenths of a second left on the clock.

“We talk about not giving up goals in the first two minutes of a period, or the last two minutes of a period, because that’s really demoralizing,” said

Sneddon, whose team has now lost four straight. “We looked down in the dumps after that early in the third.”

Harvard took advantage. On the power play, captain Dominic Moore one-timed a pass from junior forward Tim Pettit that hit the inside of Mayotte’s leg pad before fluttering to the back of the net, giving the Crimson a 3-0 lead at 7:31 of the final period.

With Grumet-Morris on top of his game, that was more than enough.

“We just ran into a hot goaltender tonight,” Beal said.

—Staff writer Jon Paul Morosi can be reached at morosi@fas.harvard.edu.