M. Hockey Remains on Top of ECAC

If the six goals did not make it obvious that Yale goaltender Peter Cohen had lost his concentration, taking time to squirt the Harvard student section with water made it clear.

Playing before a sellout crowd of 2,776 at Bright Hockey Center on Fridays, the Harvard men’s hockey team remained atop the ECAC with a 6-2 victory over second-place Yale.

The win improved the Crimson’s record against the Elis (8-7-0, 7-4-0 ECAC) at Bright to 22-1-3 and extended its home winning streak to 10 games.

Though No. 13 Harvard got off to an early start, scoring three goals in the first period, the Bulldogs responded in the second to pull within one of the Crimson.

However, Yale was whistled for back-to-back penalties five minutes into the third and Harvard broke the game open on the power play.

Sophomore forward Tom Cavanagh knocked the puck in after a shot from freshman forward Charlie Johnson clanked off the post, putting the Crimson ahead, 4-2, with 12:33 remaining in the game.

“The back-to-back penalties in the third period kind of cooked our goose,” said Yale coach Tim Taylor. “When [Harvard] got the fourth goal, it made the hill a lot steeper.”

Sophomore defender Noah Welch made the game 5-2 just 36 seconds later off an assist from junior forward Rob Fried.

With 3:52 remaining in the game, junior forward Tim Pettit scored his second goal of the night on a great individual effort. After his first shot failed to go in, Pettit—who is ranked 19th in the nation with 28 points—collected his own rebound and beat Cohen high on the glove side.

Pettit’s was the final goal of the evening in a high-scoring, fast-paced match.

“We like to play a transition game as they do,” said Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni. “It’s good hockey. It’s really the way a hockey game should be played.”

Harvard captain Dominic Moore opened the scoring with an unassisted goal after splitting several Yale defenders, skating across the top of the crease and knocking a shot past an out-of-position Cohen.

Pettit made it 2-0 after sophomore forward Tom Cavanagh knocked a face-off back to him at the top of the circle.

“Tom Cavanagh and I always try that play, but usually it doesn’t work,” Pettit said. “I put it right in the middle of the net, so I think the goalie really never knew where it was.”

Though Harvard controlled the tempo of the game during the first and third periods, it was Yale that owned the second.

“After the second period, a lot of guys were pretty frustrated about the game,” Pettit said. “But the leaders of the team stepped up, said what needed to be said, and we got things done.”

During the second, Yale made the game much more interesting after scores from Jeff Hristovski and Chris Higgins, who scored with one second remaining on the power play.

Despite the efforts of the two Eli forwards, it was Harvard who put on the superior offensive show, as five players lit up the scoreboard.

“This was huge tonight, because we had all the big players, the big scorers, step up and put the puck in the net,” Pettit said. “It was especially big in a win we must have.”

Friday’s victory was crucial because the Crimson has struggled in its nonconference schedule. If it does not win the ECAC tournament, it will need to continue to dominate its conference schedule if it hopes to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.

—Staff writer Evan R. Johnson can be reached at erjohns@fas.harvard.edu