Daigneau Makes A Triumphant Return

Just a few more days and you’d have started seeing Harvard goaltender John Daigneau’s face tacked up on posters across campus with the word ‘missing’ scrawled beneath it.

Prior to Saturday’s start against Colgate, Daigneau hadn’t seen ice time since the Crimson fell to Princeton on Nov. 14—a game in which the sophomore surrendered three tallies in a two-goal loss. With junior goaltender Dov Grumet-Morris hitting his stride and rattling off a nine-game streak in which he allowed three goals or fewer immediately following Daigneau’s last start, a switch seemed to be the last thing called for.

“[Grumet-Morris] has been getting a lot of chances to play and so I go out there and I’m a cheerleader pretty much,” Daigneau said. “I guess staying in the game from the bench keeps me on my toes a little more so that when I do get in there—when I do get a chance to play—I’ll be ready.”

But Grumet-Morris has returned to earth in his five most recent starts, surrendering more than four goals on three occasions, including Friday night’s contest against Cornell, in which he allowed five on 22 Big Red shots.

Cornell crashed the goal early on, peppering Grumet-Morris with 16 shots in the first two periods and—with a little help from lackluster Crimson defending and favorable luck—netted instant results.

Though two of the first four shots to beat Grumet-Morris came at even strength, each was the result of an odd-man rush in which his chances were less than ideal.

With the game still scoreless, a Crimson turnover in the neutral zone led to a Big Red two-on-one, with only junior Ryan Lannon back to defend. Lannon skated straight back towards Grumet-Morris, but effectively screened him as Matt Moulson threw a sharp-angle shot on net and over Grumet-Morris’ shoulder for the goal.

Fifteen minutes later, with Cornell leading 3-1, neither Lannon nor anyone else was back to assist in defending the net.

With captain Kenny Smith’s stick getting lodged in the referee’s skate during a Harvard line change, the Big Red raced in three-on-none with a goal all but certain.

Grumet-Morris recorded a fantastic initial save, knocking away Byron Bitz’s shot, but with no one from the Crimson back to scoop up the rebound as Grumet-Morris lay prone, Moulson knocked home what proved to be the game-winner.

As Harvard battled its way back into the game, Grumet-Morris stood firm, recording five saves in the third period, including one impossible series on which he made multiple saves despite having both Smith and Moulson lying on top of him.

But the stand proved to be his last.

Though the Crimson appeared to be on its way back following sophomore Tom Walsh’s goal—which narrowed the gap to just one at 4-3—the momentum would quickly turn back the other way.

Although Harvard had dominated the time of possession for much of the third period, Cornell pinned the puck deep in the Crimson zone for a prolonged period of time, fighting off several attempted clears. After more than a minute had elapsed, the puck squirted out to Moulson, who blindly fired a backhanded shot on goal that slipped through the spot previously filled by Walsh—who had fallen down battling for position—beating Grumet-Morris to his right as he struggled to find the puck.

“That’s their game,” Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni said. “They’re very good at it. Their game is to get over the puck in the O-zone, wear you down. And that’s exactly what they did and it definitely had an effect.”

Grumet-Morris seemed physically and emotionally weary after the goal, prompting Mazzoleni to announce that Daigneau would make his first start in almost two months.

“I tried not to work myself into a nervous [state], to just go out and have fun and play hard for the guys in front of me.” Daigneau said. “It’d been a while since I’d seen game time...so I just went out and focused on things I could do well and tried to keep the game simple.”

But he struggled to shake off the rust early on, despite a strong showing from the defenders in front of him, who held the Raiders without a shot on net for the first 9:53 of the first period.

Unfortunately for the Crimson, its rusty sophomore keeper wasn’t quite back on his game just yet and, handcuffed by the shot, Daigneau allowed the wrister off Jon Smyth’s stick to sneak over his right shoulder and into the net for the equalizer.

“It was a good shot,” Daigneau said. “I should have had it, but I didn’t dwell on it. I mean, those shots from the top of the circle, two-on-one, are the ones you’ve got to have in the long run. But I got it out of the net and focused on the next one.”

It was the only mistake Daigneau would make all evening, thanks in large part to the same defense that had left Grumet-Morris vulnerable the night before.

“I definitely got more comfortable as the game went on,” Daigneau said. “[I] got a little sweat going and whatnot. There definitely were spots where they didn’t have a lot of shots, like the first 10 minutes.”

Colgate managed just 18 shots on net for the game and only one from right on the doorstep despite five power-play opportunities.

In the second period in particular—when the Raiders attempted the most shots—the vast majority were launched from out beyond the circles and not in close, allowing Daigneau to make relatively easy saves while attempting to find his comfort zone.

“I thought he played steady,” Mazzoleni said. “I didn’t think we gave them a lot. I mean, they had 18 shots. I just thought we played real hard defensively and took away their space.”

—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.