M. Hockey Falls in Beanpot Opener

BOSTON--Thanks to missed opportunities and a third-period collapse, the Harvard men's hockey team squandered a chance last night to pull out a huge upset and break No. 3 Boston University's five-year stranglehold on the Beanpot tournament.

Harvard, which kept the game close throughout, surrendered three goals in the final 10 minutes of the third period, falling 4-0 to B.U. in the Beanpot semi-finals held at the Fleet Center.

Enjoying the most impressive performance of his young career, B.U. sophomore winger Jack Baker pocketed a hat trick--including the eventual game winner--to lead the Terriers past Harvard in front of a sold out crowd of 17,728.

"We gave ourselves a chance to win in the third period," Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni said. "We had our chances on the power play, but just didn't capitalize on our opportunities."

On five power play opportunities in the game, the Crimson could only muster three shots and could not maintain control of the puck in the B.U. zone.

"The big difference in the game was their execution on the power play and our inability to capitalize on our power play chances," Mazzoleni said.

Scoring on 2-of-7 opportunities on the power play and adding a shorthanded goal late in the game, B.U. feasted on the Crimson's poor special teams play.

"For a while we were a little snake bitten, but to get my first hat trick at the Fleet Center is a huge thing," Baker said. "I've been watching the Beanpot since I was a kid, but the big thing is that it helped get us into the finals."

The Terriers clung to a narrow 1-0 lead for most of the game as Harvard senior goaltender J.R. Prestifilippo kept the Crimson in the game through the first two periods.

"Presto played very well and did an exceptional job for us tonight," Mazzoleni said. "He was the reason it was close. He kept us in the game."

Prestifilippo turned aside 30 of 33 shots on the night--B.U. added an empty net goal--and was the only reason the Crimson had a chance to win tonight.

The Terriers outshot the Crimson 8-1 in the opening ten minutes of the game, but Prestifilippo's sharp netminding turned what could have been a rout into a nerve-rackingly close game for the B.U. faithful.

B.U. opened the scoring midway through the first on a power play goal from Baker, assisted by sophomore defenseman Pat Aufiero and freshman blueliner Freddy Meyer.

Working the point, Aufiero slid a pass to Meyer who wound up as if to shoot, only to fire a quick pass to Baker who was open in the slot.

With Prestifilippo out of position, Baker slipped a perfectly-placed wrist shot past the outstretched glove of the Crimson netminder, who had left most of the net wide-open, coming out to cut the angle on what initially appeared to be a shot from the point.

The Crimson forwards had difficulty generating any sort of offense in the first period, and Harvard was lucky to emerge from the first period down by just a goal.

Only the line of junior winger Chris Bala, freshman center Dominic Moore and freshman winger Brett Nowak had any success penetrating the Terrier blueline in the opening 20 minutes.

"They controlled the first period," Mazzoleni said. "I don't know how many chances we had. We didn't capitalize and we didn't deserve to win the game."

Despite Harvard's lackluster performance, the Crimson could have stolen a win from the Terriers in the second period were it not for a questionable decision on a disallowed goal called against the Crimson.

At the six-minute mark of the second, Dominic Moore had what appeared to be the equalizer on a spectacular play.

Picking up a loose puck at center ice, Moore slipped past B.U. sophomore defenseman Chris Dyment and circled behind the net.

Waiting for the goaltender to go down, Moore roofed the puck through Nowak's legs and over the shoulder of B.U. freshman goaltender Rick DiPietro.

"We knew that DiPietro liked the butterfly and I wanted to draw him out of net with a fake shot," Moore said. "But there were like eight guys in the middle of the ice, so I decided to keep the puck and just go around the net."

Despite the Crimson's exuberance with what it thought was the equalizer, the goal was disallowed after instant replay showed that the goal went in after the net was knocked off its moorings.

"I didn't now they had video replay," Moore said. "So that was a bit of a surprise. I didn't see the net go off its moorings, I thought it went up but then went back down before coming off."

Dyment cross-checked Nowak hard into the net, slightly dislodging the post, just before the shot crossed the goal line.

"I was yelling at the ref," DiPietro said. "And I didn't know if he saw it but we were fortunate enough to get away with it."

After the disallowed goal, the pace of the game slowed dramatically, as both teams seemed more concerned with venting their anger on each other than with scoring.

The bad break seemed to quiet the Crimson attack. After the disallowed goal, Harvard had a chance on the only power play of the period to find the equalizer, but the Crimson power play unit could not maintain any pressure in the offensive zone, a problem that was compounded by poor passing between the Crimson pointmen.

"Any time a goal is called back, you lose a bit of momentum," Moore said. "But as much as you try to forget it, the disallowed goal changed the momentum of the game."

Despite the Crimson's offensive inconsistency, B.U.'s sloppy passing and poor shooting in the second period kept Harvard in the game heading into the third.

At the ten-minute mark of the third period, however, Baker put the game away for B.U. with his second goal of the evening to give the Terriers a 2-0 advantage.

Capitalizing on a 2-on-1, junior center Carl Corazzini waited for the Harvard defender to go down, took a step and then rifled a pass to a streaking Baker who redirected it past Prestifilippo's outstretched blocker.

The Terriers' second goal came just as the Crimson were showing signs of life.

After a sluggish start to the third period with penalties to both teams that interrupted the flow of the game, Harvard looked once again as though it was about to tie the game at 1-1 after a pair of good odd-man rushes.

Just as Harvard was finding its legs, however, the wind was taken out the team's sails on an opportunistic rush just after Harvard junior center Steve Moore nearly tied the game on excellent scoring chance of his own.

"Tonight we worked hard," Dominic Moore said. "We just didn't get any bounces."

Although the second goal probably put the game out of reach for the low-scoring Crimson, B.U. added an insurance goal on the power play with just over three minutes remaining in regulation to put the Terriers up 3-0.

Five seconds into the power play, B.U. senior winger Chris Heron redirected a shot from the point past Prestifilippo to pocket his 12th goal of the season.

Baker added an empty-net goal with 15 seconds remaining in the third to snare the hat trick after Harvard failed to register a shot on net with a 6-on-4 advantage to end the game.

The Crimson will face Northeastern next Monday night in the Consolation round of the Beanpot.

Northeastern lost a lopsided game to Boston College earlier in the day, falling to the Eagles, 6-0.

B.U. will meet the B.C. for the 14th time in the finals of the Beanpot next Monday night as well.