Vermont’s Late Overtime Goal Crushes Crimson

A minute and a half more was all the Crimson needed to slide by Vermont with a tie, but the Harvard men’s hockey team failed to penetrate the Catamount defense and fell short, 2-1, in an overtime loss last night at the Bright Hockey Center.

“As the game wore on, we looked tired,” said Crimson coach Ted Donato ’91. “We’ve played a lot of hockey in these last few weeks. It looked like in overtime there wasn’t a lot of gas in the tank.”

With 1:35 left in the extra frame, Dean Strong, the leading scorer for Vermont (8-4-1, 5-1-1 Hockey East), tapped the puck into the net, leaving Harvard with its ninth defeat of the season.

“I think we’re a little too content with a loss,” captain Dylan Reese said. “It was a good effort overall, but it’s still a loss.”

Although the Crimson (3-9-0, 2-7-0 ECAC) came out strong in the beginning of the first period, Harvard couldn’t land the puck in the back of the net, as the offense missed out on numerous shot opportunities and failed to capitalize on the three power-play opportunities.

Junior Alex Meintel’s man-advantage shot 3:12 into the game was blocked by Catamount netminder Mike Spillane, as was Reese’s slapshot from the right nine minutes into the period.

“There are a lot of areas of our game we need to improve, special teams being one of them, and execution of the puck in our own zone,” Donato said. “I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I feel we need to execute better on our power play.”

But as soon as Vermont had a power-play opportunity, the Catamounts’ Torrey Mitchell came through, pounding in a shot from the outside left against Crimson goalie Justin Tobe 10:37 into the period to capture an early 1-0 lead.

“Both teams were very tight defensively,” Vermont coach Kevin Sneddon ’92 sad. “Penalty kills were very tough on both sides…We had a really hard time getting shots through.”

In the second period, Harvard capitalized on a 5-on-3 power-play chance at 6:18 to tie it up, 1-1, as freshman Alex Biega slammed the puck from the slot through a screen of Catamount defenders to score.

The Crimson held its own against Vermont’s notoriously strong defense—which had only allowed an average of 1.58 goals per game upon entering last night’s contest—as it matched the Catamounts’ 26 shots on goal.

But despite the number of power plays that resulted from the 20 penalties called on both sides, Harvard failed to break the scoring drought that persisted through the rest of regulation.

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

No matter how much the Crimson pressed in the final moments of the game, its attempts were not enough to squeeze out a win, as Harvard ultimately yielded, 2-1.

“It’s frustrating not to get the results, but when you play a good team, and you play as hard as we did, then the results will follow,” Donato said.

The Crimson will have a two-week break before its next game against Dartmouth on Dec. 16.