Men's Hockey Defeats ECAC Rival Cornell

The Harvard men’s hockey team ended its regular season in the Bright Hockey Center in style Saturday evening, downing league rival Cornell, 3-1, in front of a raucous sellout crowd that seemed to boast as much carnelian red apparel as crimson.

“I don’t think there need to be a lot of great pre-game speeches when Cornell is on the menu,” smiled Crimson coach Ted Donato ’91, whose squad swept Colgate and the Big Red in the last weekend before the ECAC tournament. “For a long time, Cornell has been the flagbearer in our league.”

The Big Red (14-11-4, 10-8-4 ECAC) entered Cambridge as the No. 16 team in the nation but had lost, 5-1, to Dartmouth Friday night.

And though Saturday’s first period ended in a 0-0 stalemate, Harvard (12-15-2, 10-10-2) got a golden opportunity halfway through the second, when Cornell captain Byron Bitz was assessed a five-minute major penalty and game misconduct for hitting from behind.

A Crimson minor cancelled out the first 120 seconds, but then captain Dylan Reese cashed in during the home team’s three minutes of man-advantage time.

He took the puck at the blue line, then skated a loop around the back of the net and through the left circle before beating Cornell goaltender Ben Scrivens through traffic at 15:42.

But less than five minutes into the third frame, a pair of Harvard penalties—including freshman Chad Morin’s five-minute major and game misconduct for head-butting—set up a Big Red 5-on-3, during which Cornell’s Mark McCutcheon beat netminder Justin Tobe high to tie the score.

“[Morin] got a little carried away,” Donato said, adding that he “didn’t get a great view” of the whistled play. “I don’t think it was a dangerous head-butt, but if [the referees] decide it’s a head-butt, it’s a five-minute penalty.”

Less than four minutes later, however, after a rush of Crimson pressure at the Cornell goalmouth, junior Mike Taylor gave Harvard the lead for good, beating Scrivens on a second-chance opportunity.

And with only 90 seconds remaining, sophomore Jimmy Fraser capped off a 39-shot night for the Crimson with a five-hole deflection for the 3-1 lead.

Meanwhile, Harvard goaltender Justin Tobe—who spent the majority of the season backing up freshman Kyle Richter—earned his second consecutive win with a 26-save performance.

“Awesome,” was Reese’s assessment of his teammate. “Flat-out awesome.”

“When your career’s winding down and you know you’ve only got a few games left, it brings out the best in you,” Reese added.

Senior Night festivities followed the final regular-season horn, and a sizeable chunk of the crowd remained to watch Reese, Tobe, and classmates Kevin Du, Ryan Maki, Brendan Byrne, and Steve Mandes celebrate with their families on the ice.

The Cornell game is traditionally the Bright Hockey Center’s rowdiest of the season, and players rarely need extra motivation before facing the Big Red.

“At the same time,” Reese added of the Senior Night dimension, “it’s special to have your family there.”

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