Crimson Looking to Get Ahead, Stay Ahead

Finding the back of the net hasn’t been a problem for the No. 19 Harvard men’s hockey team, but holding late leads has proved something of a challenge these days.

The Crimson (4-2-0, 3-2-0 ECAC) held a 3-2 edge over Cornell last Friday but collapsed, allowing two even-strength Big Red goals in the final 5:04. The next night, Harvard led Colgate 6-1 in the third period before three power-play tallies brought the final score to 6-4. And Tuesday against Boston College, the Crimson watched its 4-0 lead dissolve into a 4-3 affair before an empty-netter sealed the frenzied final minutes.

“We realize we have to do a better job at finishing the game,” said Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91, “whether that means playing aggressively, with more intelligence, or staying out of the box.

“I think certainly our inexperience in the fact that we have a lot of younger players is part of it,” he added, “but it is something we need to improve on if we want to establish ourselves.”

And when the trailing team mounts a last-ditch charge, the Crimson can’t stop moving forward.

“I think we get cautious out there,” senior forward Charlie Johnson said. “We stop attacking, stop getting it deep in their zone and going after them. We kind of sit back, and when you do that, you start taking penalties.”

In Harvard’s last trio of games, four of the eight late goals allowed have been man-advantage strikes.The Crimson was assessed four of its seven penalties Tuesday after building a 4-0 lead, and last Saturday, Harvard committed five of its 10 infractions after going up 6-1.

SHOT THROUGH THE HEART

The Eagles outshot the Crimson 39-18 Tuesday, and in the second period, Harvard scored twice in just three shots on goal.

“To be perfectly honest, I don’t believe the number that was given,” Donato said. “But if we’re going to win every period 2-1 and get outshot 18-3, then I’m quite fine with that.

“Up until maybe the last five minutes of the period, we had the game going exactly the way we wanted.”

Also, the coach pointed out, Boston College skated 5:47 on the power play in the second frame thanks to four Crimson penalties, one of which carried over into the third period.

“A lot of it was because they had a lot of power plays and we were killing lot, and we’re not going to get a lot of shots then,” Johnson said, “but we definitely need to try and get more pucks to the net. A lot of our shots aren’t getting through—we’re getting a lot blocked.”

INJURY REPORT

Just after Tuesday’s win over BC, Donato deemed the contest “a battle of attrition.

“We had about three or four guys hurt,” he said, “and we were trying to survive, and we ended up...taking a lot of penalties and really shortening the bench more than we wanted to.”

Among those banged up were junior Dylan Reese and freshman Brian McCafferty, both defensemen.

Donato declined to comment on specifics, instead saying, “I’ve been more encouraged than I have been discouraged with the progress of our injured guys, but where it stands now is, we’ll have more than one game-time decision.”

Ryan Maki missed time earlier in the season but has skated in the last three games, and freshman Nick Coskren played against the Eagles after taking a hard fall into the boards last Saturday against Colgate.

ON TAP

Harvard faces Yale tonight at 7 and former travel partner Brown Sunday at 3 p.m. Both contests will be held in the Bright Hockey Center, which will likely lose most fans the The Game in New Haven this weekend.

The Bulldogs are 0-4-0 this year, and as all the losses are in-conference, Yale currently sits at the bottom of the ECAC standings.

It has used three goaltenders this year, and freshman Alex Richards has earned the most playing time with a .908 save percentage and a 2.05 GAA (senior Josh Gartner has allowed 5.91 goals per contest in 91:21 of playing time, and junior Matt Modelski allowed four goals on 11 shots in 23:35).

Richards played nearly a game and a half during the Bulldogs’ two losses last weekend.

The Bears, meanwhile, are 2-2-0 in front of sophomore David D’Alba’s .982 save percentage. Brown is converting just 10 percent of its power plays, but it is killing off 82.9 percent of those faced.

Harvard’s power play, which is scoring at a 1-for-3 clip, is currently tops in the nation.

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