NOTEBOOK: Harvard Seniors Shine in Win

Playing on a night in their honor, Harvard’s seniors shined in the Crimson’s 2-1 victory over Clarkson on Saturday at the Bright Hockey Center, helping clinch a first-round bye in the ECAC playoffs.

While forward Dan Murphy notched two assists for the Crimson (17-10-2, 13-8-1 ECAC)—giving him a weekend total of four points—goaltender John Daigneau did his part in net, making 12 saves in the third period to hold on for the one-goal win.

Harvard’s other three seniors had solid games as well. Center Charlie Johnson skated aggressively all night while blueliners Tom Walsh—who also picked up an assist—and Peter Hafner helped limit the Golden Knights (16-15-3, 9-11-2 ECAC) to 10 shots through two periods.

“Some of our seniors had some of their best games of the year,” said Crimson coach Ted Donato ’91, later adding, “Now that it’s the end of the regular season, we can look back and really appreciate how difficult it can be to step out of the shadows of [the Class of 2005] and respond and have a great season like our seniors did.”

After allowing four goals to Clarkson on Nov. 25, Daigneau was solid all night on Saturday.

Though the netminder had a relatively easy first two periods, the Golden Knights turned up the offensive pressure in the third.

Firing more shots on goal in the final frame than in the first two combined, Clarkson made Harvard work to maintain its lead.

And Daigneau responded. Though he allowed a power play-goal at 4:12 on Steve Zalewski’s one-timer at the left post, the senior recovered to stonewall the Golden Knights for the rest of the period, including a sliding right pad save of David Cayer’s breakaway attempt just moments later.

“That’s what you need your goaltender to do,” Clarkson coach George Roll said. “We didn’t have a lot of quality chances, but the ones we had, he came up with some big saves.”

SINNERS ABOUND

Both squads made several trips to the penalty box on Saturday, with the teams combining for 13 penalties worth 34 minutes.

Clarkson’s most costly penalty came when defenseman Phillipe Paquet earned a double-minor at 17:18 of the second period. With Harvard pressuring the offensive zone, Paquet first grabbed Johnson and then added a cross-check to his back as the referee signaled for a delayed penalty.

Given four minutes of man advantage time, the Crimson power play finally converted after squandering its first four attempts. At 18:43, Murphy fired a shot through traffic from the right circle that deflected off Ryan Maki and past Golden Knights netminder David Leggio for the eventual game-winner.

But the special teams glory truly belonged to both teams’ penalty kills, as each squad limited the other to eight shots in six man advantage opportunities.

“Clarkson is as good as any team we’ve played, special teams-wise—they’re big and strong on their power play, and their penalty kill is No. 1 in our league,” Donato said, later adding, “In games like this, especially a good team like that, you’re not going to get a lot of clean plays for goals.”

AROUND THE LEAGUE

Coming into the weekend, only No. 9 Cornell had clinched a first-round bye in the ECAC playoffs, and virtually all seeds—except for Brown’s stranglehold on last place—were up for grabs.

The Big Red, who would have secured first place with two wins, knocked itself out of the league lead with a shocking 2-0 loss at Rensselaer on Friday.

The upset allowed Dartmouth and Colgate, teams that both picked up four points on the weekend, to move from a tie for second place to a shared ECAC regular season championship, giving the Big Green its first Cleary Cup in 26 years.

Cornell salvaged third place with a 2-1 victory over Union on Saturday, and Harvard’s two wins bumped St. Lawrence into fifth place and out of a first-round bye.

FINAL TICKS

Harvard’s seniors were honored after the game with a brief ceremony....The Crimson fired 39 shots on net, including 19 in the second period....Junior Kevin Du, who scored Harvard’s first goal, also won 18 of 23 faceoffs....Zalewski earned a 10-minute misconduct to go along with a two-minute minor for holding the stick just 24 seconds into the second frame....The Crimson finished the regular season with three one-goal victories....Harvard will return to action on March 10, when it will host an opponent to be determined in the quarterfinals of the ECAC playoffs.

—Staff writer Karan Lodha can be reached at klodha@fas.harvard.edu.