NOTEBOOK: Tobe Makes 24 Saves in Losing Effort

On Nov. 10, Crimson coach Ted Donato ’91 deviated from his usual system of alternating starting goalies to give freshman Kyle Richter his second straight start, an honor Richter earned after shutting out a highly ranked Boston College team.

Last night at the Bright Hockey Center, senior netminder Justin Tobe received a similar vote of confidence, with Donato sending him onto the ice for the second consecutive game.

While Richter started Saturday night’s game against Princeton, he was pulled in favor of Tobe in the second period after surrendering the game-winning goal. After making a partial save on a Princeton shot, Richter appeared to lose sight of the puck as it trickled through his legs and across the goal line, prompting Donato to make a substitution.

Donato, however, denied that granting Tobe the start indicated a shift in his long-term strategy regarding the backstop position.

“I haven’t really made any decisions,” Donato said. “We’re a work in progress a little bit, as far as that goes.”

Tobe, playing all 60 minutes this time, turned away 24 Vermont shots and kept the Catamounts scoreless throughout the second and third period.

But he failed to close the door in overtime, surrendering the game-winning goal with just 1:35 left to play.

“I thought he played well. He made some good saves, he battled,” Donato said. “He gave us a chance to win the hockey game, so I was happy with the way he played.”

POWER OUTAGE

In yet another penalty-filled contest, both squads struggled to take advantage of the opportunities afforded to them on the power play. After trading man-advantage goals in the opening frame—with Harvard’s tally coming at the tail end of a 5-on-3 stretch—both teams’ special teams units remained silent for the remainder of the contest.

“Certainly there are a lot of areas of our game we need to improve, special teams being one of them,” Donato said, adding, “I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I feel we need to execute better on our power play in order to win hockey games.”

Vermont killed seven penalties in the second and third periods, while the Crimson dealt with five of its own, including a five-minute major and game misconduct on senior Kevin Du.

“[The ref] called way too many penalties” captain Dylan Reese said. “I thought it was ridiculous. [For] both teams—he was calling everything. If you touched a guy, he called a penalty.”

With both teams receiving an approximately equal proportion of the whistles, Reese felt that the constant special teams play hindered Harvard’s ability to establish its offense.

“It kills the momentum of the game,” he said. “We’ve got guys sitting on the bench for ten minutes straight, and then they’re expected to go out there and perform—it’s tough.”

TWO-MINUTE MINORS

Vermont coach Kevin Sneddon ’92 was a teammate of Donato’s on the Crimson’s 1989 national title-winning team. He served as Harvard’s captain his senior year…Yesterday’s contest ended a grueling stretch of six games in 12 days for the Crimson, including three against nationally ranked opponents…Freshman defenseman Alex Biega scored his third goal in four games. He and fellow blueliner Reese are tied for second on the team with four goals each…It was the Crimson’s first overtime contest of the 2006-07 season.

—Staff writer Daniel J. Rubin-Wills can be reached at drubin@fas.harvard.edu.