BOSTON, Mass. — For Harvard, there was more to consolation game of the 67th annual Beanpot than pride.

The game had PairWise implications as the Crimson look to sure up a spot in the NCAA Tournament come late March.

“I think this game was very important game for the PairWise at the end of the year,” Harvard junior forward Frédéric Grégoire said. “Every year, this game is more important at the end. So we took it as a normal game. We kept it simple and worked hard.”

The Crimson came into the third-place game sitting on the bubble for an at-large berth with a No. 14 ranking.

For BU coach Albie O’Connell, his team lost the game before they hit the TD Garden ice.

“[Harvard] was more competitive, they were skating harder,” O’Connell said. “They were stopping at pucks, we were skating by pucks. We were hoping it was going to be easy. We wanted a nice game of shinny [hockey], they wanted a real hockey game.”

After a scoreless first period, Harvard carried over nearly a full two-minute power play into the second period. The nation’s leading power play coming into the game couldn’t break the scoreless deadlock to start the middle frame.

Near the midway point of the second period, Grégoire potted his fourth goal of the year from the right circle as he hit just inside the far post. The helpers went to John Marino and Reilly Walsh.

Walsh set up Harvard’s second goal of the early evening as he was on his knees in the right circle. The entire BU defense was fixated on him and he dished the puck on the backhand to a trailing Jack Badini on the weak side. Badini had an open net for his seventh goal of the season.

“It was a good pass by [Colton] Kerfoot coming off the bench,” Walsh stated. “I just made a move to the net. I kind of fell and I heard Badini kind of yell, so I threw it across, he made a good play to finish.”

BU’s offense started to wake up in the third period. Shane Bowers nearly scored three and half minutes in as Michael Lackey was caught out of position, but Harvard made a great defensive play.

Patrick Curry, who tried to set up Bowers, set himself on the goal line for the Terriers’ first goal at the 6:11 mark. He finished a great tic-tac-toe play with Joel Farabee and David Farrance picking up the assists.

“Third period we came to life, it was nice to see some of the captains and leaders get on some of the other guys on how they were competing,” O’Connell said. 

Grégoire restored the two-goal lead for Harvard with nearly a carbon copy of his first goal of the game with 7:28 remaining in the game. The referees took a long look at it for potential offsides but ultimately confirmed it as a goal.

The Terriers (10-14-3, 8-7-2 Hockey East) called a timeout with just under three and half minutes to play to pull goaltender Vinnie Purpura. Harvard wasted no time scoring an empty net goal as junior defenseman Adam Fox scored to record his 100th career point.

“I think if they had a skills competition for hitting empty nets, I am not sure there would be anyone better, he closed a lot of games for us hitting that empty net,” Harvard coach Ted Donato said of Fox. “He’s a tremendous player, he makes others around him better. His poise, puck patience, his playmaking ability, I can’t say enough.”

BU continued to battle and got within two again when Gabriel Chabot scored with 1:53 remaining in the game.

R.J. Murphy scored Harvard’s second empty net goal to make it 5-2 Crimson.

Michael Lackey made 24 saves for the Crimson (13-7-3, 9-5-2 ECAC), while Vinnie Purpura made 34 saves for the Terriers.

Nathan Fournier has been covering hockey — from high school to the American Hockey League — for the past 10 years. You can follow him on Twitter.