M. Hockey Drops Two in Dodge Holiday Classic

MINNEAPOLIS—Just days before Christmas, the Harvard men’s hockey team traveled to Minnesota for the Dodge Holiday Classic in good shape. No. 10 in the polls, the Crimson (9-4-2, 6-3-1 ECAC) had secured nine victories in 10 contests and downed four nationally ranked teams.

But the competition on the Mariucci Arena ice was unforgiving, and Harvard, now No. 12, was sent packing for winter recess after a tie and a loss—not exactly the early Christmas gifts the team might have wanted.

MERRIMACK 6, HARVARD 4

Relegated to the consolation round of the tournament one day earlier, the Crimson was dealt a stunning upset of Merrimack, which decisively downed Harvard, 6-4. The loss, just the Crimson’s second since Nov. 12, snapped Harvard’s six-game unbeaten streak.

“We weren’t sharp mentally today,” Crimson coach Ted Donato ‘91 said of his flu-ridden squad, the day before Christmas Eve. “And that’s what cost us more. I think physically we were a little bit more there than we were [Wednesday], but mentally we just didn’t do the things we needed to do to be successful.”

While Harvard dominated even-strength play, squeezing off 21 more shots and holding the Warriors (7-11-2, 1-8-1 Hockey East) to just 12 at 5-on-5, Merrimack repeatedly struck with a man advantage, torching backup netminder Justin Tobe for four power-play goals in five chances.

Ahead 1-0 and skating 5-on-4 to open the second period, the Warriors wasted little time extending their lead. Merrimack defenseman Jeff Caron, the Warriors’ offensive catalyst on the afternoon with four assists, wristed the puck into traffic, where it nicked off teammate Scott Drewicki’s stick and past Tobe 1:30 after the intermission.

But that play—the Warriors’ first and only shot during the first 18 minutes of the second period—briefly appeared to be Merrimack’s last gasp. Galvanized by the two-goal deficit, the Crimson roared to life, peppering goaltender Jim Healey and forcing several point-blank saves.

Defenseman Dylan Reese solved Healey first 7:28 into the frame, taking a feed from assistant captain Ryan Lannon, then slipping away from a check at the blue line before waiting for congestion to obscure the goaltender’s view. His subsequent shot snuck through the pack in front and by Healey to pull Harvard within one.

But despite intense pressure inside the Warriors’ zone, the Crimson couldn’t poke home the equalizer. Captain Noah Welch’s high sticking minor at 18:31 granted the Warriors a brief respite—one they eagerly capitalized on just 10 seconds later. Perched at the right point, defenseman Bryan Schmidt feigned a one-timer, then quickly slipped the puck to the left post, where Mike Fournier greedily awaited its arrival. His tap-in broke Harvard’s momentum and, it appeared, Tobe’s confidence.

“Once we got the second [power-play goal], it was like...he just lost a little bit of confidence because of the way they were coming,” Merrimack coach Chris Serino said. “It’s almost like he knows he can’t let another one in to get a couple behind. I think he might have pressed a little bit.”

Just moments after Healey turned aside a pair of quality efforts from Crimson pivot Kevin Du to start the final period, the Warriors broke from their own zone and sent the puck careening into the left corner at Harvard’s end. There, Brendon Clark fished it out, then shoveled a pass on to Mike Alexiou, who slapped his shot past Tobe to notch a 4-1 lead.

Freshman Dave Watters’ power-play goal—the first of his collegiate career and the Crimson’s lone conversion in four man-advantage opportunities—at 6:02 kept Harvard’s hopes alive, if only for a few moments. Springing from the penalty box as his minor expired, Schmidt received a long outlet pass behind the Crimson defense and raced in on Tobe all alone, roofing his effort to reestablish the Warriors’ three-goal edge.

“I didn’t think they were getting a ton of opportunities,” Donato said. “But it did seem that, when they did, they cashed in on them.”

As the third period wore on, the sophomore transfer looked increasingly unsettled in net, on one occasion lunging wildly at a puck that cleared the crossbar by two feet. Brent Gough’s unscreened power-play tally from between the circles with 4:54 remaining capped Tobe’s forgettable evening and sealed Harvard’s shocking defeat.

The Crimson’s 8-6 win over Princeton on Nov. 13 aside, disappointing performances between the pipes have been exceedingly rare for Harvard thus far this season. Senior Dov Grumet-Morris, given the night off after recording 37 saves and allowing zero goals the day before against Northern Michigan, has allowed two goals or fewer nine times this year, with Tobe following suit twice.

“You know, we got some goals,” said Tobe, who notched 13 saves on the night. “And usually when you score four goals you should win the game, so a lot of that falls on the goalie.”

Freshman Tyler Magura and senior Andrew Lederman added goals in the final 2:03 to establish the final two-goal margin of defeat.

HARVARD 0, NORTHERN MICHIGAN 0 (OT)

Call it a pitcher’s duel. Call it a clash of defensive titans. Or just call it a 0-0 tie, because that’s all Grumet-Morris and Tuomas Tarkki—netminders for Harvard and Northern Michigan, respectively—got after turning in a pair of goaltending gems in the semifinal round of the Dodge Holiday Classic on Dec. 22.

The matinee event featuring the Crimson and the Wildcats (9-5-4, 7-3-2 CCHA) was the precursor to the evening’s rumble between No. 1 Minnesota and Merrimack, and when the puck dropped for the first game, it was all but assumed that the earlier contest’s winner would go on to face the Golden Gophers for the championship.

Entering the matchup Harvard had never won a holiday tournament, a streak that would continue as the Crimson officially tied Northern Michigan. The latter was propelled into the Dec. 23’s finals via a sudden-death shootout that dropped the Crimson down to a disappointing consolation matchup.

Lederman, who launched two attempts against the Wildcats that were barely turned away by the goalframe, described the situation as “tough to swallow.”

“It’s definitely disappointing,” he admitted, though he added that “it does count as a tie” despite the shootout.

In the second period, Lederman directed the puck from the top of the left circle that barely skipped off the crossbar. In the last frame, his shot from between the circles again found the pipes, one teammate Jon Pelle later told him “hit off the inside of the post.”

Mariucci’s 200 foot by 100 foot sheet of ice—Olympic-sized, as opposed to the Crimson’s 204 by 87—was cited as a possible hindrance to Harvard before the game. Following the contest, all affiliated with the Crimson refused that excuse. But, Lederman later added, “they didn’t tell us the posts were bigger out here, too.”

Said Donato, “We had some good chances. It’s a game of bounces, and there’s not much you can say.”

The tie was, in large part, the result of stellar goaltending. Grumet-Morris amassed 37 saves to Tarkki’s 33, and the former earned his first shutout of the year.

“Obviously, when your team throws a shutout, you expect to win,” Grumet-Morris said, “but this is an unusual circumstance. It’s what happens when you play in a tournament. It’s what happens when you play against great opponents. Great hockey was played by both teams.”

And by both netminders. Each turned away breakaways, smothered blistering slapshots, reacted with lightning-fast pad saves and stymied endless brief shifts of momentum that swung back and forth all contest.

“I know we had, obviously, a real tough time with their guy,” Wildcat coach Walt Kyle said, “and our guy was real tough as well.”

So tough that after 65 scoreless minutes of play and an official tie, the two squads faced off in a shootout to determine which would crack the finals.

Fittingly, the first two attempts—by Northern Michigan’s John Miller and the Crimson’s Brendan Bernakevitch—bounced off the pipes yet again.

Wildcat Andrew Sarauer followed with a quick goal that upped the pressure, but Lederman knotted the shootout two skaters later with a shot that bounced off Tarkki’s glove and into the goal.

Immediately after, Northern Michigan’s Darin Olver lifted the puck over Grumet-Morris, but Harvard’s Dan Murphy countered with a quick snapshot across Tarkki’s body.

The 10-skater shootout ended in yet another tie, this one 2-2, and so a sudden-death shootout followed. Olver scored immediately, going top-shelf on Grumet-Morris, and Tarkki miraculously—and barely—stymied Bernakevitch’s attempt with his left pad.

The Wildcats skaters rushed the ice and enveloped Tarkki in celebration. On the other end, the Crimson skaters consoled Grumet-Morris one-by-one.

It would enter the record books as a tie, but once again, Harvard would not get its crack at a tournament title. Nor would it get a crack at No. 1 Minnesota, which would go on to defeat Merrimack 6-2 in the evening’s matchup.

“It was one of those games where it really looked like the team that was going to get the first goal would win,” Donato said. “I didn’t realize it was going to be in the shootout, though.”

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

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