Vacation Trip to Ohio No Holiday for Men's Hockey

Instead of going out in style, the Harvard men's hockey team ended 2007 with a double dose of disappointment.

Unable to capitalize on multiple power-play opportunities, the No. 15 Crimson suffered back-to-back losses against Ohio State (6-14-2, 2-9-1 CCHA) and No. 16 St. Cloud State (9-9-2, 4-7-1 WCHA) at the Ohio Hockey Classic last weekend.

ST. CLOUD STATE 4, HARVARD 1

In Sunday's consolation game, Harvard ((6-6-2, 5-3-1 ECAC) certainly wasn't sitting on cloud nine. Hindered by numerous penalties, the Crimson watched St. Cloud State float by with a victory after converting on two power plays and slamming in two insurance goals to seal a 4-1 win.

Although the Huskies, who boast a top-10 power play, took seven of their 10 first-period shots with a man advantage, both sides remained scoreless through the first period.

St. Cloud State finally found the net late in the second, on a power-play tally from Ryan Lasch with 1:34 left in the frame.

Senior Jon Pelle tied up the game early in the third period with a man-advantage strike of his own, finishing off a pass from junior Brian McCafferty.

The Huskies regained control of the game on another power-play goal from Lasch, taking a 2-1 lead. Only 21 seconds later, St. Cloud State scored again, crossing a shot from the right into the goal.

The Crimson had its strongest offensive period in the third, launching 11 of its 29 shots, but Huskies goalie Dan Dunn kept strong.

"Sometimes, like a game against Ohio [State] and St. Cloud, we had a lot of opportunities but didn't capitalize," sophomore defenseman Alex Biega said. "I think we were down for a long period and got our chances, but just didn't score. Next time we have to learn how valuable those things are and take advantage of them."

Lasch finished his hat trick with an empty-net score with 27 seconds left on the clock.

OHIO STATE 4, HARVARD 2

In Saturday night's game against host Ohio State, Harvard squandered its early lead, and went on to lose to the CCHA bottom dwellers.

“If we don't come out for 60 minutes, we don't come home with a win," Alex Biega said. "We could've had a chance to play the number one team in the nation [Miami (Ohio)] and could've changed our ranking, but we still came out of there with our heads high and we learned a lesson."

Freshman Michael Biega scored within the first five minutes of the game, his seventh goal in six games, to give the Crimson an early lead. But Harvard had to fight to protect its lead.

Although Harvard shut down the Buckeyes' first three first-period power-play opportunities, persistent Ohio State broke through at 5-on-5 late in the frame. With 1:23 to go in the first, OSU freshman Kyle Reed tapped a rebound past sophomore goalie Kyle Richter to tie the score.

Eager to keep up their momentum, the Buckeyes stayed on the offensive, but Alex Biega broke up one rush with the final seconds ticking off the clock. Pelle snatched up the puck and got a shot off on the left side, and sophomore Doug Rogers tried to knock in the rebound. Buckeyes netminder Dustin Carlson blocked the shot, but McCafferty pounced on the second rebound to score with just two seconds left in the first period, putting Harvard ahead, 2-1.

Ohio State came into the second period with a vengeance and notched the tying goal within the first 33 seconds of the whistle.

It was all over from there.

Seven minutes later, the Buckeyes scored off of an errant Crimson pass to take their first lead of the game, 3-2.

Harvard had its best chance to tie the game on a power play late in the second, but didn’t score. In all, the Crimson had eight scoreless minutes of man advantage in the final two periods.

"Our power play wasn't really connecting in both games, but again, it's really what you learn and that's I think how we took it," Alex Biega said. "Our power play is really successful on the year, but we struggled a bit last weekend…Playing teams like that, they're obviously pretty good teams, and if anything, helped us learn the situation and how important the power play can be."

Carlson finished with 35 saves for Ohio State, which wrapped up the scoring with a power-play tally late in the third.

—Staff writer Courtney D. Skinner can be reached at cskinner@fas.harvard.edu.