M. Hockey Sweeps First Homestand

Neither of the victories—Friday’s over Yale and Saturday’s over Princeton—was secured as the Harvard men’s hockey team would have liked. But they were victories just the same, enough to push the Crimson (2-2-1, 2-2-1 ECACHL) back up to .500, and so nobody complained.

Harvard dominated its contest against the Bulldogs (0-6-0, 0-4-0) throughout, yet the Crimson had to wait until the waning minutes of a tight, clean night for its first goal.

And the game against Princeton (2-3-1, 2-2-0)—well, it was just ugly, filled with 53 penalty minutes and 14 goals.

But after three consecutive disappointing performances offensively, the Crimson will take the 11 goals and four points however it can get them.

Said Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91 simply, “We accomplished what we set out to do over the weekend.”

HARVARD 8, PRINCETON 6

To say it was a “very choppy, sloppy game,” as Donato later did, was to put it kindly.

The two teams combined for 21 whistles and 15 man-advantage situations, and though the Crimson power play had converted only 5.9 percent in its first three contests, the unit went 4-for-9 on Saturday.

Two of those goals—and the turning point of the game—came during Princeton’s boarding major, apportioned when Erik Pridham’s hit knocked Harvard freshman Dave MacDonald to the ground 10:36 into the second period.

“The only thing I would say,” Donato said of the blow, “is as a former player, when guys get hit from behind—to me, that’s as dangerous as it gets in hockey. Whether it’s for or against our team, I think that’s something that needs to be eliminated from hockey.”

Nearly two minutes into the subsequent power play, forward Dan Murphy put the Crimson up 3-2 when he knocked in a rebound from Tiger goaltender B.J. Sklapsky.

But 3:20 still remained on the penalty, and Pridham remained in the box.

Less than three minutes later, Harvard scored on Dylan Reese’s screened blueline slapshot.

And finally, three seconds after Princeton’s return to full strength following five grueling minutes of penalty killing, Crimson assistant captain Tom Cavanagh pushed home a puck stolen by classmate Brendan Bernakevitch.

“Bernakevitch gave me a really nice pass in front,” Cavanagh said modestly of his second goal of the night, “and I had an empty net.”

But even after one back-breaking penalty and three quick Harvard scores, the Tigers continued to push and brought the score to 5-3 with a top-shelf power-play goal.

And though the Crimson would go up 8-3 with a quick trio of goals in the third period, Princeton responded in the game’s final 10 minutes.

The Tigers managed two power-play goals and scored once more when Sklapsky was pulled for an extra man. That brought Princeton within two at 8-6, but Harvard held on for the messy win.

Each team managed four power-play goals—an offensive achievement and a defensive breakdown on both sides. The Crimson penalty kill, which Donato had considered “very much a strong suit in the first few games,” staved off just three of seven situations.

Still, after the previous weekend’s abysmal road losses to Cornell and Colgate, this series proved a welcome respite.

“We only scored one goal last weekend, and we scored eight tonight,” Cavanagh said on Saturday. “That’s an improvement, definitely.”

HARVARD 3, YALE 1

Every time his team took a shot and missed—which happened 30 times in the first two periods—Harvard netminder Grumet-Morris paced in his crease and threw his hands up in frustration. His team was performing exactly as it had wanted to, and the effort was entirely unrewarded.

For two periods Crimson had pounded the puck forward, limited the Bulldogs to only 13 shots and drawn just three whistles.

But with only the final frame remaining in regulation, the scoreboard still flashed matching zeroes. For that, Yale coach Tim Taylor ’63 cited the stellar play of Bulldogs goaltender Josh Gartner, “the star of the night” according to Taylor.

And in the blink of an eye, just 6:26 into the third period, Yale notched a power-play goal.

With Gartner’s fine reflexes—and eventual 44 saves—the Bulldogs had turned Harvard’s hustle into a 1-0 Crimson deficit.

“I don’t think the score, after [Yale] put it in, reflected the way the game went,” said senior forward Andrew Lederman, “but their goalie did play very well, and we showed up when it counted.”

What the unassuming Lederman should have said, of course, is that he showed up when it counted.

With under six minutes left, and after the first of two costly Yale penalties—both drawn by Harvard freshman Alex Meintel—the winger fired a rocket past Gartner that brought the Bright Hockey Center crowd to its feet.

“I actually didn’t see it go in,” Lederman said of his second collegiate goal. “I followed through, so I was facing the crowd when I scored, but I was going for the left side of the net, and that’s where it went.”

The goal was assisted by captain Noah Welch and freshman Jon Pelle, the latter of whom would go on to steal the night with three points.

It was he who broke the 1-1 tie less than three minutes later with a wrister off a pinpoint feed from assistant captain Tom Cavanagh.

“Cav threw the puck out towards me from behind net,” Pelle explained. “I kind of just one-touched it towards the net hoping something would happen, and it looked like it hit off the post, maybe hit off his pad, and scrambled over the line.”

With 33 seconds left, senior Brendan Bernakevitch netted the Crimson’s second power-play goal of the night—with assists by Pelle and Cavanagh—and sealed a three-goal Harvard comeback in the final 5:36 of regulation.

“It would have been very easy to say, ‘Listen, their goalie’s playing great, we just haven’t got the bounces, Yale stole one off us,’” said Donato, who earned his first collegiate coaching victory Friday night. “But our guys just wouldn’t give up, they wouldn’t quit. They really upped the pressure, I think, instead of going the other way when Yale scored.”

After Lederman’s goal in the waning minutes, the momentum—and the buzz in the Bright air—seemed Harvard’s. And it was earned.

“Harvard certainly had the edge in Grade-A chances,” Taylor said, “and that’s what this game ultimately boils down to.”

—Staff writer Rebecca A. Seesel can be reached at seesel@fas.harvard.edu.