M. Hockey Hits Rock Bottom in First Period Before Rebounding

NEW HAVEN, Conn.—Long before Harvard staged a comeback for the ages in its riveting 7-5 win at Yale on Friday night, it played a first period that made it look like it would lose by two touchdowns.

And since this is ice hockey, that was a very, very bad thing.

After the Crimson held a 9-2 advantage in shots on goal through 10 minutes, the Bulldogs erupted for four goals in a seven-minute span on sophomore goaltender John Daigneau, giving Yale what seemed to be an untouchable lead.

“There’s no reason why that should happen,” said Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni. “It shouldn’t happen…I shouldn’t say never happen, because you’re human and that does happen, but that’s the first time this year that someone’s blown our doors off in a matter of five or seven minutes.”

“We lost our composure, but the more telling thing is the way we responded,” he added. “We talked all week about how a real test of someone’s character is when they’re under a tremendous amount of adversity, and our kids have experienced that.”

The onslaught began with 7:05 remaining in the period, when the Elis’ leading scorer, Joe Zappala, caught Harvard in a line change and snapped off his 17th goal of the season. Daigneau had a clear look at the shot, which came from the top of the left circle, but it hit his leg pad and trickled past him.

The pivotal goal in the period came less than four minutes later. Yale sophomore Matthew Craig took a shot from the left point that slipped through traffic in front of Daigneau. Daigneau knocked it down, but it skipped past him. He lunged backward and—in the opinion of both the goal judge and Yale fans seated behind him—stopped the puck before it completely crossed the line.

The goal light did not go on. The Bulldogs, thinking they had scored anyway, began to celebrate. The Harvard players stood and watched them. There was no signal from the on-ice officials until approximately 10 seconds later, when referee Alex Dell—who was near the hash marks when Daigneau covered up the puck—pointed toward the net.

Yale 2, Harvard 0.

“It didn’t seem to me that it went over,” said the goal judge, who asked that his name not be used. “But the ref called it a goal. It’s the referee’s call.”

Several Yale fans corroborated. “Not a [bleeping] chance was that a goal,” said a smiling young man in a grey Yale sweatshirt seated behind the goal.

While the call itself was questionable, the accompanying momentum shift was unmistakable. Yale scored twice more before the period ended, on Nate Jackson’s wrister from the high slot at 17:20 and a scintillating goal by Jeff Hristovski with less than a minute remaining.

Hristovski literally skated through four Harvard players at the blue line—Ryan Maki, Kevin Du, Noah Welch and Kenny Smith—and slipped the puck underneath Daigneau. Welch later called that play, and the first period in general, “the all-time low in my hockey career.”

“We didn’t help Johnnie out very much,” admitted senior assistant captain Tyler Kolarik. “I just hate to see that happen. I don’t feel like we gave Johnnie the support he needed. In a hostile environment, we have to be there for him defensively, and we weren’t, from the forwards all the way down.”

Daigneau, who stopped 10 shots in the period, became a casualty of the Crimson’s sluggish start when Mazzoleni replaced him with junior Dov Grumet-Morris before the second period.

“We had to change up,” Mazzoleni said. “It wasn’t working…It’s like changing your quarterback in football or pitcher in baseball. Sometimes you just have to do something to inspire your team and give them the visual perception that it’s different.

“When you’re down, 4-0, you have to create some sense of positive.”

Grumet-Morris allowed one goal in the remaining 40 minutes and finished with 14 saves.

“I really didn’t have too much work back there,” Grumet-Morris said. “The guys played very well in front of me over the course of the second and third periods. They had maybe one or two legitimate scoring opportunities.”

Mazzoleni declined to name his starting goaltender for this evening’s Beanpot consolation game against Northeastern.

—Staff writer Jon Paul Morosi can be reached at morosi@fas.harvard.edu.