One Second, One Goal, One Season

It wasn’t the way the play was drawn up—that skate wasn’t supposed to get in the way—and he wasn’t supposed to be the shooter. The game shouldn’t have been that close, but the team hadn’t come to play for the first 20 minutes.

Just as doubt began to seep in, another chance, and then, redemption.

In short, it was Harvard’s season in 2.1 seconds.

Tied at two with just under 40 seconds remaining, the Crimson had earned a faceoff in the Clarkson zone, just moments after surviving one at its own end, securing one more chance for a shot at what had been all-but-guaranteed by many before the season’s start—the Whitelaw Trophy as ECAC champions.

Brendan Bernakevitch was supposed to win the draw cleanly back to Noah Welch, positioned at the blue line along the right boards for a last-chance shot on net.

“I just knew,” Bernakevitch said, “that I could outmuscle [Jay] Latulippe on the draw.”

Of course Bernakevitch had the strength to fend off Latulippe. But this season hasn’t been one where “could” has been good enough. Fielding one of the most talented squads in the history of its hockey program, Harvard had been heralded as a lock for the ECAC title and a bona fide NCAA contender.

This team “could” have beaten anyone in the country, let alone some of the ECAC cannon fodder slated as opponents during the middle of the season.

But in all cases featuring such a sure bet, equally certain is the inevitable, proverbial bump in the road.

Latulippe didn’t simply roll over. Sure he didn’t control the faceoff, but he made sure Bernakevitch didn’t cleanly either. Redeflecting off a skate, the puck went skidding across the ice away from Welch from the very beginning.

The Crimson similarly kicked off its season with losses to Brown and ECAC cellar-dweller Princeton in its first four games. Not exactly the way things were supposed to happen.

The Tigers would win just four more games, including another against Harvard.

The two performances at the Beanpot no one on this team will want to remember. A humbling defeat to archrival Cornell at Bright Hockey Center. Coming up short against Vermont at home with playoff positioning on the line in the final weekend of regular season play.

No, mere ability wasn’t going to suffice if those expectations were to be fulfilled.

Teams of less character would have quit, but there were signs of life as the season hobbled along. A rousing performance in a heartbreaking 3-2 defeat at Conte Forum against No. 2 Boston College, followed in short order by a decisive victory over then-No. 8 UMass. If the season was to turn around, surely this would be the spot.

The Crimson won just a single contest in its next six.

Then a historic comeback against Yale, rattling off six straight tallies to erase a four-goal deficit—followed less than a week later by a loss to Northeastern to place last among the Boston Four.

With every revitalizing win, two unexpected losses unsurprisingly followed.

“We had some big wins,” captain Kenny Smith said. “And we had some disappointing losses.”

Both Harvard and the puck floated in the wrong direction, aimless, off-course, wandering an unforeseeable path.

Yet somehow, without warning and right when it seemed all was lost, there was sweet, unanticipated deliverance.

Smith waited in anticipation as the puck slid towards his tape—not Welch’s—and, leaving nothing to chance, zipped a slapshot through a screen and off the knob of Clarkson goalie Dustin Traylen’s stick, right under the junction of post and crossbar.

Smith, who had become disoriented after losing his stick in a referee’s skate and turned to retrieve it, allowed a breakaway, game-clinching goal against the Big Red in one of the worst games of the season.

Smith, the captain twice-benched by Crimson coach Mark Mazzoleni, including a scratch against Rensselaer during a vital home stand with just six conference games left on the slate.

Smith, who spearheaded Harvard’s playoff run, leading the Crimson to a 9-1-1 record since returning to the lineup.

Smith, who hoisted the Whitelaw Trophy high above his head as he skated over to Harvard student section at Pepsi Arena after closing out Clarkson on Saturday.

It wasn’t the way the season was drawn up—all that midseason disappointment wasn’t supposed to get in the way—and Kenny Smith wasn’t supposed to be the shooter. But in the end all that mattered was the smile spread wide across his face and the redemption of a Crimson squad that never does what anyone expects.

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