NOTEBOOK: Home Ice Clinched With Friday's Win

Saturday night was scheduled as the ceremonial Senior Night at Bright Hockey Center, but Friday night’s win may have postponed some of the farewells.

Harvard’s victory over Colgate clinched a first-round ECAC playoff home series for the Crimson, ensuring that the team’s veteran members would spend at least one more weekend on their home ice.

“We enjoy playing in front of our home crowd,” said Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91. “It is an advantage [for us].”

The win improved the Crimson’s record at home to 6-6-0, compared to just 4-6-2 on the road—a home-ice edge that Donato believes will carry over into the postseason.

“Over the last few years, we’ve had a lot of success here,” Donato said. “To travel…three weekends in a row—if you [include] the Final Four in Albany—it’s a tough row to hoe. So to get home ice in the first round is an advantage.”

NET GAIN

The ongoing rotation in net continued Friday night, with senior Justin Tobe getting the nod over freshman Kyle Richter, who had started Harvard’s last 10 contests against ECAC opponents. Richter had been pulled in favor of Tobe midway through a 5-1 loss to Yale one week before and had also surrendered six goals in a 6-6 tie with Brown the following night.

“[Tobe] played well in relief against Yale,” Donato said of his decision to start Tobe. “Although Kyle had a great stretch of games where he played very well, I don’t think the last two were his best, and Justin has worked very hard.”

While the Raiders did manage to beat Tobe early off of a turnover in the Crimson zone, he shut down the Colgate offense for the rest of the night, turning away a total of 22 Raiders shots.

“Tobe played a great game,” freshman defenseman Chad Morin said. “Without some of those stops, it’s a whole different game.”

DEFENSIVE DIFFERENCE

After surrendering the early goal, Harvard’s defense regrouped to submit one of its best performances of the season. By limiting Colgate to just five shots on goal in each of the first two periods, the Crimson blueliners were able to hold the Raiders at bay until the Harvard offense blew the game open in the second frame.

“Their top line is a lot of their offense, so we keyed in on them and tried to keep them to the outside,” Morin said of the defensive effort.

“We felt that if we were aggressive and physical all over the ice that we could start to take over the game later,” Donato added.

The takeover began in the second period, during which Tobe and his defensemen not only kept their team in the game by protecting the net, but also combined to kick-start the offense.

Down 1-0, Tobe sent a pass to Morin, who feinted a move to the outside to create a seam in the defense. Morin then slipped through the hole and deposited the puck in the net, with Tobe getting credit for the assist.

“Tobe made a great pass to me there, put it right on my tape, gave me a little speed,” Morin said. “I saw the defenseman was flat-footed, so I took it wide and tried to throw it upstairs on the backhand.”

TWO-MINUTE MINORS

Tobe’s assist on Morin’s goal earned him his first point of the season…After a pair of penalty-filled contests last weekend, when the Crimson piled up a two-day total of 23 infractions, Harvard was whistled just five times on the night against Colgate—including just once in each of the first two periods…The Crimson’s penalty kill was perfect on the night, neutralizing all five Raiders power plays.

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