SEASON RECAP: Crimson Fails To Repeat Success of Years Past

There were certainly flashes of dominance. A 4-0 shutout of powerhouse Boston College. A stirring takedown of then-ECAC leader Quinnipiac. A redemptive come-from-behind victory in the ECAC playoff opener against Yale.

But in the end, the 2007 edition of the Harvard men’s hockey team failed to live up to the lofty standards set by its predecessors, bowing out in the second round of the ECAC playoffs and missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2000-01 season.

“It was incredibly disappointing,” senior Kevin Du said of the season’s outcome. “We felt that with the core players that we had...we would be at the top of the ECAC and contend for our league title and hopefully the national title, but for whatever reason, it wasn’t meant to be.”

The Crimson struggled from the outset, dropping its first three games for the first time since the 1951-52 campaign.

“We started out with a tough schedule,” senior Justin Tobe said. “I don’t want to say the team got down, but it was definitely hard after the start of the year.”

The win over BC, in Harvard’s fourth game, was the high point of the Crimson’s first half. It also marked the emergence of freshman goaltender Kyle Richter, who recorded 36 saves in just his second collegiate start to shut down the powerful Eagles offense.

However, as was so often the case for Harvard in 2006-2007, the win failed to translate into any lasting momentum. In its next game, the Crimson surrendered a late lead for a tough 3-2 road loss to Cornell.

“It was very frustrating at times,” Du said. “We’d often play a couple games here and there up to our potential, but then the next night we’d go out and we’d play very poorly.”

This lack of momentum was perhaps most glaring in a November homestand against Princeton and Quinnipiac, the ECAC leader at the time.

In the weekend’s first contest, Harvard, at that point the league’s last-placed team, shocked the Bobcats with some of its best play of the season. Having fallen behind early, the Crimson rode the highlight-reel offense of junior Mike Taylor and a crunch-time defensive stop by junior Tyler Magura to an electric come-from-behind win.

Just 24 hours later, however, Harvard submitted one of its sloppiest and most lackluster performances, squandering an early two-goal lead to succumb, 4-2, to the Tigers. The contest saw Richter pulled from the net after the game-winning score trickled through his legs.

“I’m embarrassed,” captain Dylan Reese said after the loss. “This is the first time that I’ve ever been embarrassed of my team in three years that I’ve been here. I can’t believe the effort we gave tonight.”

The Crimson faced a similarly heartbreaking weekend later in the season, facing Yale and Brown on the road. Harvard first suffered a 5-1 defeat at the hands of the Bulldogs, its worst loss of the season. A day later, the Crimson had to settle for a tie with Brown after the Bears co.mpleted a hard-fought comeback to tie the game with just 13.3 seconds left on the clock.

In the season’s final weekend, however, Harvard finally seemed to find its groove. After dispatching Colgate by a 4-1 margin, the Crimson was able to avenge its early-season loss at Cornell, beating the Big Red 3-1 on Senior Night to enter the ECAC playoffs on a high note.

“The team got better as the year went on,” Reese said. “We played our best hockey down the stretch, no doubt about it.”

As it entered the postseason, Harvard was able to sustain its momentum for the first time all season, as even the Bulldogs, who had dominated the Crimson to the tune of a combined score of 10-3 in regular-season play, couldn’t stand in Harvard’s way.

The Crimson cruised to a two-game sweep, winning the first game in thrilling fashion as Reese resorted to captainship by example, rallying his team from a 2-0 deficit with a natural hat trick.

But in the second round versus Clarkson, the Crimson offense faltered, managing just one goal in two games as the Golden Knights swept Harvard from the playoffs.

The ECAC playoff elimination, combined with Harvard’s sub-.500 non-conference record, ensured that the Crimson would be sitting out the NCAA Tournament for the first time in five seasons.

Reese, however, expressed hope that the trying season would prove beneficial in the coming years.

“The first thing I said in the locker room after we lost our final game of the year...was [to] the guys coming back, ‘You have a responsibility to learn from the situation and to be better because of it,’” Reese said. “This team...has really turned into a winning team and I wanted to make sure that the guys knew they had a duty as Harvard hockey players to get this team back to where it needed to be.”

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