Raiders Tally Last-Minute Goal to Upset No. 19 M. Hockey

On Saturday night at the Bright Hockey Center, the No. 19 Harvard men’s hockey team’s four-game winning-streak ended just one night after it defeated arch-rival Cornell.

Despite jumping out to a 1-0 lead in the second period, the team allowed a power-play goal against the Colgate Raiders (4-6-2, 1-3-2 ECACHL) in the final minute to suffer a 2-1 loss.

The Crimson (4-2-0, 4-2-0 ECAC) entered the third period with the lead, but the team failed to take control of the game despite creating quality scoring chances and keeping the puck out of its own zone.

“I don’t think we can really look in the mirror and feel like we played a good enough game,” said head coach Ted Donato ’91. “I give Colgate a lot of credit. From their goalie on up, they really stuck with their game plan.”

But the last two minutes told the story of how the game slipped away. After coinciding minors for roughing left the teams playing 4-on-4, junior defenseman Brian McCafferty was whistled for cross-checking with 1:22 left in the third as he fought for the puck along the Harvard boards.

After the Raiders used their timeout to devise their plan of attack against the remaining three Crimson skaters, it took less than a minute of careful passing around Harvard’s zone before Colgate’s Tyler Burton netted his second goal of the period by finishing a Jesse Winchester pass from the right post.

“It was a reminder that you have to play 60 minutes,” co-captain Mike Taylor said. “We got outshot, [15-4], in the second period, and we go into the third period with a one-goal lead at home. That should be a recipe for a win to have the lead at home.”

After Donato pulled Richter, the team applied tremendous pressure to Raiders goaltender Mark Dekanich in the last 35 seconds, only to see the backstop repel two last-second, point-blank attempts by Taylor and sophomore Doug Rogers as the Crimson crashed the net.

The ending evoked all the more frustration given that the game remained close from the opening faceoff.

In the first period, the Crimson outshot the Raiders, 11-9, but Colgate’s hard-hitting defensemen kept up the physical pressure on Harvard every time its players chased the puck into the corner or tried to corral a rebound.

Though the Crimson was able to launch a few shots from the slot, Colgate’s defense often forced Harvard to dump the puck into the corners on offense or try to connect on long centering passes through traffic in front of the Raiders net.

“They obviously came out hungry tonight,” Taylor said. “[Colgate] tied last night, and this is a tough road trip for them. One thing that shows is just how good everybody in our league is.”

In the second period, the Crimson struck at 7:22 into the second period when senior center Paul Dufault cut towards the net from Dekanich’s right side and stuffed in a behind-the-net pass from junior forward Steve Rolecek.

But even in the second period, Harvard’s inability to dominate the game began to appear, as the Raiders outshot the Crimson, 15-4, in the second period alone. Though sophomore goaltender Kyle Richter remained perfect in the period, Colgate did manage to send several cross-ice passes in front of the Crimson net for quality shots. By the end of the game, Colgate had managed to unleash 34 shots to Harvard’s 27.

“We were never really able to take the game over the way we wanted to,” Donato said. “But we were never really able to establish a forecheck.”

Even after the second intermission, the Crimson was not able to quell the persistent attack established by the Raiders in the middle frame.

Though Harvard began the final period clinging to its one-goal lead, Colgate’s combination of physical defense and a quick transition game in the neutral zone helped the Raiders maintain their shooting advantage.

It was only a matter of time before Colgate forward Tyler Burton scored the first of his two goals against Richter from point-blank range after he received a pass from Peter Bogdanich.

And from there, the momentum swung entirely in favor of the Raiders.

Still, with such a strong start this season, the Crimson players know that this loss can build resilience and strengthen focus.

“At this point in the season, you can look at it a lot of different ways,” Taylor said. “We have a lot of games left, and if we can take this and learn from it and rebound against [Boston University] and the following week against Yale, it might turn out to be a learning experience.”

Harvard will return to the ice tomororow night against the Terriers in Boston.

—Staff writer Robert T. Hamlin can be reached at rhamlin@fas.harvard.edu.