Crimson Finally Solves Danis

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – So maybe he is mortal after all.

Yann Danis was a Hobey Baker candidate, one of the nation’s elite goaltenders and the cornerstone of Brown’s emerging program before this weekend’s ECAC quarterfinal opened. He still is all of those things.

But even great goaltenders have less-than-great games. Danis had one last night. Harvard skated and passed superbly, clamped down defensively and received stellar goaltending of its own in a 4-2 victory before a hushed 1,471 at Meehan Auditorium.

The Crimson, which has lost only one of its last eight, plays the Bears again at 7 p.m. tonight. A win clinches the best-of-three series and sends Harvard to the ECAC semifinals for the fourth straight season.

“Even the greatest goalies have holes,” said Crimson assistant captain Tyler Kolarik, who finished with a goal and an assist, his 19th and 20th career ECAC tournament points. “The kid’s human, just like Patrick Roy is human.

“Not taking anything away from him, because he’s certainly a terrific goaltender. But when you get your confidence going, and get going to the net, good things happen.”

Harvard had four “good things” Friday. Each came on a truly well-executed scoring play.

The Crimson scored more goals against Danis in each of yesterday’s final two periods (two) than over two regular season games (one).

Junior defenseman Noah Welch had the first, only 24 seconds into the second. He took a cross-ice transition pass from Tom Cavanagh, crept into the left circle and teed up a weapons-grade slapper that eluded Danis to the glove side.

That snapped a 74:20 shutout streak for Danis against Harvard, dating back to Brown’s Jan. 31 win.

“Good feeling to get the first one for our team,” Welch said. “He’s a great goaltender.”

The Crimson followed up on that momentum throughout the first half of the period. This was free-skating, Harvard hockey—not the clamp-it-down, trap-tastic style Brown employed with great success during the opening period.

Then came a breakdown. Crimson captain Kenny Smith’s clearing attempt was kept in at the blue line by Dylan Row, who sent it back into the corner. From there, Brent Robinson beat Kevin Du off the wall and stuffed the tying goal five-hole on junior Dov Grumet-Morris.

But Harvard moved ahead to stay at 15:24, when Kolarik squeezed a sharp-angle goal past Danis for a 2-1 lead. Both sides agreed that was the biggest goal of the game.

Said Kolarik: “I figured, ‘Why not?’…I just fired it. I didn’t think he was ready.”

Said Danis: “That one, I should’ve had.”

The Crimson went up 3-1 about four minutes into the third on a vintage Cavanagh play. The native son (Warwick, R.I.) used his speed to turn a center-ice 3-on-2 into a 2-on-1 by the time he worked into the left circle. From there, he fed longtime linemate Tim Pettit, who hammered his ninth of the year into an empty top-shelf.

“It was one of those things where we read off each other,” said Cavanagh, who has a team-leading 32 points. “Timmy always goes to the net hard.”

With Cavanagh’s younger brother playing in the Rhode Island state tournament, his father Joe ’71—one of only two three-time All-Americans in Harvard hockey history— was the only member of the family at yesterday’s game. But he came away with plenty to tell his other eight children about, as Tom started the Crimson’s fourth scoring play, as well.

On the power play, he drew two men up toward the blue line before chipping the puck along the boards to Kolarik in the corner. Then it was tic-tac-toe from Kolarik to Dylan Reese to Brendan Bernakevitch, who was open on the doorstep for a gimme goal and 4-1 lead with eight minutes left.

Harvard finished 2-4 on the power play, only the third time this season it has scored twice on the power play. “We have so many weapons,” Welch said. “We’re finally using them all.”

Brown (15-10-5, 13-7-2 ECAC) had a 13-7 edge in third-period shots on goal, but scored only once, on Robinson’s power-play goal in the final minute. Harvard (15-14-3, 10-10-2) is over .500 for the first time since Dec. 13.

Grumet-Morris (28 saves) benefited from a bounce late in the first period when Nick Ringstad hit the post of an empty net. But aside from that and Robinson’s two goals, he had another strong effort that further distanced him from his early- and mid-season doldrums.

“He knows it, we know it: Dov had some tough times this year,” Kolarik said. “But the kid’s a warrior … He’s more polished now, and he’s really stepped up his game.”

Danis, meanwhile, finished with 23 saves. “Yann played OK,” said Brown coach Roger Grillo.

Friday was the most goals Danis has allowed in seven career games against Harvard. His previous high was three (along with an empty-netter) in Game 1 of the 2002 ECAC first-round series, a 4-1 Crimson win.

The night after that, of course, was Danis’ famed 66-saver. In other words, don’t bet on two straight down nights for Brown’s brilliant backstop.

“We’ll have to be better tomorrow night,” Cavanagh said.

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