Crimson Penalty Kill Chokes Vermont Offense

Vermont defenseman Chris Mounsey tumbled through the crease, careening off a Harvard defender and straight into Dov Grumet-Morris. As he lay on top of the Crimson’s junior netminder, Mounsey stealthily landed a pair of blows to Grumet-Morris’ head while the officials skated away, unawares.

But he wouldn’t get away with it. Well, at least the Catamounts wouldn’t.

Later in the second period of Game 2, junior defenseman Noah Welch made for UVM forward Chris Smart, knocking him to the surface with an open-ice hit. Straddling the prone Catamount’s shoulders, Welch reached down and tore Smart’s helmet from his head, sending it skidding away while its owner raced to the official in protest, to no avail.

Though referee Dan Murphy attempted to impose order on each of the contests this weekend, issuing 35 penalties during the two games—including a pair for roughing after Friday night’s final horn—Vermont wasn’t about to back off the chippy style of play that offered its only chance for victory. But Harvard was also determined to stand its ground.

“Everybody’s playing hard, everyone wants to win,” junior defenseman Ryan Lannon said. “It’s a physical game out there. It’s part of their style. I respect that. But we’re not gonna back down.”

With 13:07 gone in the first period of Game 1 and two skaters battling for a puck trapped against the boards, both teams converged against the glass, two-by-two, until only the goaltenders were left outside the fracas. Still, the referees refused to whistle the puck frozen while a pair of scuffles broke out inside the bunch, with Lannon and sophomore forward Charlie Johnson eventually sent to the box for roughing alongside sparring mates Jaime Sifers and Evan Stoflet, while shoves continued to be exchanged behind them.

In all, eight roughing penalties were whistled on the weekend—four on that one play—with just one called without a matching infraction to offset it.

“Everyone in the stands can see their style of play,” assistant captain Tyler Kolarik said. “They like to be chippy, and that’s their game, and it works for them. I give them credit. We had to be careful not to get overemotional and, as I said, I thought we did a good job controlling our emotions.”

“NOW IT’S FAIR”

Down 4-1 as the clock ticked below four minutes during the third period Saturday night, Vermont coach Kevin Sneddon ’92 desperately needed a spark. Though two Crimson skaters had been sent off in the previous 45 seconds, a 5-on-3 power-play tally was no guarantee, given Harvard’s staunch penalty kill in the previous five periods.

Just one night earlier, the Catamounts, then down 1-0, had missed out on a golden opportunity to tie the score when the Crimson had clamped down for 1:49 of two-man-down play.

“A 5-on-3, as we all know, it’s a great opportunity to generate offense,” Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni said. “But at the same time, on the reverse end, if you don’t get it done, or at least generate offense, it can almost take away momentum from you.”

With that memory in mind in the closing minutes of Game 2, Sneddon pulled goalkeeper Travis Russell for a sixth attacker when Harvard forward Brendan Bernakevitch was sent to the box for hooking with 4:15 remaining, giving Vermont two more skaters than the Crimson. When sophomore defenseman Peter Hafner followed 45 seconds later, Russell didn’t even budge, creating a rare 6-on-3.

“That’s a pretty crazy ending, but it’s playoffs and you can’t take anything for granted,” Grumet-Morris said. “Vermont made a late comeback and you have to expect that our of any team in the playoffs.”

Grumet-Morris, yanked from side-to-side by the swarm of Catamounts dancing around his goalmouth despite the best efforts of Welch, Lannon and senior forward Tim Pettit in front of him, recorded save after brilliant save, holding back the tide for 41 seconds.

But given the overwhelming advantage, Grumet-Morris could merely delay the inevitable.

Silencing chants of “now it’s fair” emanating from the Harvard student section, the Catamounts buried two goals in 29 seconds to pull within one.

Under normal circumstances, the Crimson penalty kill was flawless, rebounding after a shaky performance down a man against Vermont one week earlier, in which Harvard allowed three goals on five power plays.

Despite playing with four skaters on 13 occasions, the Crimson allowed just those two goals as the Catamounts struggled for their playoff lives in Saturday’s final moments.

Throwing their bodies across the ice while forcing Vermont’s largest threats to remain on the outside, Harvard’s penalty killers surrendered just 13 shots, including a mere two in Friday night’s six power plays and one during that crucial 5-on-3.

“We typically feed off our power play,” Sneddon said. “It doesn’t even always have to result in a goal. But, [we had] some real good opportunities and we looked like five individuals out there on that 5-on-3. That’s not gonna get the job done in playoff time.”

The Crimson set its defense high and prevented the Catamounts from even positioning themselves to attack, let alone find a passing lane to create some much-needed offense.

And on the few occasions Vermont teed up a shot, the puck rarely found its way to the net, as Harvard’s skaters sprinted out to challenge shots with their sticks and occasionally their chests.

In all, the Crimson blocked 21 Catamount shots before they reached Grumet-Morris.

STREAKY PLAY

Not that Grumet-Morris had much difficulty with the few that found their way on goal.

Recapturing the early-season brilliance that saw him allow three goals or fewer in nine consecutive starts, the junior netminder entered the third period of Saturday night’s contest on the verge of accomplishing a feat unseen in 73 years—three straight shutouts, last recorded in 1931 against Toronto, Army and Middlebury.

After shutting down Dartmouth for Harvard’s first shutout since Nov. 28, Grumet-Morris was quick to repeat the feat, blanking the Catamounts with ease in game 1, as he faced just 19 shots—12 of which came in the final period.

“I thought he was very consistent in there tonight,” Mazzoleni said. “I think we all know, sometimes those aren’t easy games to play, especially the way it went for two periods. They only had about six shots after two, and it’s more difficult in those circumstances to keep your concentration.”

But Grumet-Morris was ready when Vermont launched its late-game charge. Though he may have been restless and untested through the first 40 minutes, his footwork was sharp and his positioning perfect, leaving nothing to chance in earning the first back-to-back shutouts for Harvard since 1987—then against the Catamounts and Clarkson.

Saturday appeared to offer much more of the same. Grumet-Morris faced just two shots during the first period, despite a pair of power plays for Vermont.

The Catamounts mustered a more cohesive attack in the second, but with a stalwart defensive effort from the blueliners in front of him, Grumet-Morris was barely threatened, casually brushing aside the additional challenges to his net.

“Our defensemen and our forwards’ backchecking have been fantastic,” Grumet-Morris said. “They’re limiting the opposing team to a certain number of shots per game and they’re keeping it to the perimeter, which keeps my job easier. I think that the lower goals-against average is 100 percent because of our defensive play.”

But with the third period underway and Vermont’s season hanging in the balance, the Catamounts launched an all-out offensive on Grumet-Morris’ net, doing so with a renewed urgency following Harvard’s fourth goal.

Taking the puck straight into the Crimson end, Vermont peppered Grumet-Morris with shots, with Scott Misfud’s tally at 4:55 finally ending his shutout streak at 184:23.

Unfazed by the tally, Grumet-Morris would allow no additional even-strength goals, beaten only when the Catamounts’ attack featured at least two more skaters than the Harvard defense.

OF NOTE

The Crimson tallied a pair of power-play goals against UVM, one in each game. The scores extended Harvard’s recent string of success with an extra skater, as the Crimson has now scored a power-play goal in eight of its last 10 games…Sophomore Tom Walsh was the odd man out on defense this weekend, held out by Mazzoleni in both contests.

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