M. Hockey Sweeps Union, RPI

One road trip, four big points for the Harvard men’s hockey team.

The Crimson (8-5-3, 7-2-2 ECAC), building upon the success of its comeback win over Bowling Green in the Denver Cup consolation game, defeated both Union (6-6-3, 2-4-1) and Rensselaer (7-6-2, 2-3-2) this weekend to cement its place atop the ECAC standings.

“Anytime you go on the road and get four points, it’s huge for the team’s confidence,” said Harvard captain Peter Capouch.

The Crimson’s 16 points are six better than the next-best team in the ECAC, but two teams—No. 12 Cornell (8-4-1, 4-1-1) and Clarkson (7-7-3, 3-0-2)—still have better league win percentages than Harvard.

Harvard 3, Union 2

The Crimson used a strong second period and matched the Dutchmen in the third frame to preserve a 3-2 win on Friday night.

Union got an early 1-0 lead in the second period on a shorthanded goal by defenseman Jason Kean. The Crimson tied the game up five minutes later when junior center Brett Nowak notched the first of his two goals, assisted by sophomore defenseman Kenny Smith.

Nowak’s second goal of the game also came in the second frame, as he blasted a feed in the slot from defenseman Aaron Kim past Union goaltender Brandon Snee.

Junior center Dominic Moore iced the game five minutes into the third when he took a pass from sophomore forward Tyler Kolarik and blew it past Snee for his sixth goal of the year and a 3-1 lead.

Union retaliated a minute later on the man advantage, sneaking a Jeff Wilson redirect past sophomore goaltender Will Crothers to pull within one. Crothers, who faced 19 shots in the winning effort, was able to wall the Dutchmen for the rest of the evening.

Harvard 5, Rensselaer 2

The Crimson again showed the comeback touch, spotting the Engineers a two-goal advantage in the first period, before storming back to take a 5-2 victory.

Capouch thought the comeback victory was a sign of the team’s blooming confidence, but expressed concern about Harvard’s recent trend of falling behind early.

“It’s nice to get these comeback victories, but I think we’d like to get a lead sometime,” Capouch said.

Rensselaer jumped out to a two-goal advantage in the first on goals from Matt Murley and Carson Butterwick.

But if the first frame was Rensselaer’s, the second was all Crimson, as Harvard scored three goals to grab the lead. Freshman forward Tom Cavanagh and defenseman Dennis Packard both scored in the second, as did Nowak, his third goal of the weekend.

With a sharper Harvard attack in place, the pressure on freshman netminder Dov Grumet-Morris was lessened, and he responded by blanking the Engineers for the second and third periods. Grumet-Morris finished with 34 saves.

Just 37 seconds into the final period, Harvard expanded its lead to 4-2 on the strength of Cavanagh’s unassisted second goal. Sophomore forward Rob Fried tallied the game’s final goal in the third, his fifth on the season.

“We were doing a good job of forcing turnovers with the trap,” said Harvard Coach Mark Mazzoleni. “We got after the puck and shut down their options. Our guys did a good job of taking away space.”

Harvard returns home to Bright Hockey Arena for games against Yale and Princeton Friday and Saturday nights. The Yale contest is of particular interest since Harvard and Yale are one-two in the ECAC point tally.