New Semester Sees End of Winless Streak

When fall-semester finals don’t seem to go their way, many Harvard students have been known to vow that they will redouble their efforts, promising to improve in the coming spring term.

For the Harvard men’s hockey team, the second-semester improvements have already begun.

Snapping a nine-game winless streak that dated back to Dec. 1, the Crimson (7-9-3, 6-6-2 ECAC) rode senior Jon Pelle’s two-score night and its best overall team effort of the season to a 3-1 win over Dartmouth (8-9-1, 3-8-1) on Saturday night in Hanover, N.H.

“Tonight we played probably our closest effort to a 60-minute game we’ve played all season,” co-captain Mike Taylor said, echoing the well-known philosophy of a certain local football coach. “I thought we really played all three periods well for the first time in a while.”

“[This was] one of the only games all year we played a full 60-minute game,” Taylor’s co-captain, Dave MacDonald, said in agreement.

As the 60-minutes mantra necessitates, Harvard came out swinging from the very beginning against the Big Green. As the defense killed a couple of penalties early, the offense was able to put together a series of quality scoring chances. And while Dartmouth goaltender Mike Devine was able to keep the game scoreless until well into the second period, the Crimson never lost its intensity, even when its early efforts were denied.

“The mindset was probably a little bit different coming into the game,” Taylor said of his team’s energy. “We hadn’t won in nine games, so we were kind of frustrated.”

The pressure paid off 13:23 into the second, when Taylor assisted sophomore Doug Rogers on a shot past Divine from the right side for a 1-0 Harvard lead.

After a big save from sophomore netminder Kyle Richter, Pelle’s night began in earnest. Twenty-five seconds into a Crimson power play, Pelle hit paydirt on a wrist shot from the left side to pad the lead.

The Big Green managed to eliminate Harvard’s insurance not long after, netting a score of its own as the second period wound to a close. But with an end to his team’s winless streak in sight, Pelle prevented the lead from slipping away, scoring 3:07 into the third to bring the score to 3-1.

“Jon has always been a guy who...can just find the back of the net,” MacDonald said. “A lot of people were questioning whether our team had the capability to score some goals, and Jon is one of the guys out of a number who are capable of putting the puck in the net.”

Not to be overlooked amidst the excitement of Pelle’s outburst was the steady play of Richter, who once again kept his opponent in check for long enough to give his teammates a chance to win.

“Kyle’s been probably the most consistent player on our team, I’ve said it before,” Taylor said.

“He’s been our best player pretty much all year,” MacDonald added. “If you look at any team, one big ingredient is the goaltending, and I think we definitely have that.”

Hoping to turn the win into some lasting momentum, Harvard will travel to Providence on Friday to take on Brown.

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