Men's Hockey Starts Slow, Skates to Tie

HAMDEN, Conn.—Overcoming a two-goal deficit with a pair of second-period scores, the Harvard men’s hockey team ended Friday night’s game against No. 18 Quinnipiac in a 3-3 tie.

The Crimson struggled early in its battle against the Bobcats (10-5-3, 3-3-3 ECAC) at the TD Banknorth Sports Center.

“Today we just kind of came out flat,” co-captain Mike Taylor said. “I don’t know if it was the bus legs [from] traveling or whatever, but we definitely need to improve our start. We were a little sloppy and just didn’t have that much energy in the first period.”

The Bobcats pounced on the chance to take the first-period lead, knocking in two goals in 53 seconds. Quinnipiac put away its first tally on a rebound at the 11:34 mark and then took advantage of a Crimson turnover on the blue line and finished off a rebound in the crease to boost its lead to 2-0.

“Through the first 10, 15 minutes we weren’t executing well,” said Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91. “We had breakdowns that allowed them to get odd-numbered rushes. After that, I thought we did a better job.”

The Crimson finally answered at the end of the period. Senior Jon Pelle tapped the puck over to classmates Paul Dufault, who brought it up the right side and wove around a Bobcat defender to find freshman Michael Biega. Biega finished off the pass at 16:03 for his eighth goal in as many games to cut Harvard’s deficit in half.

But Quinnipiac regained momentum as the clock ran down on the opening frame. The Bobcats charged toward the Crimson net on a 2-on-1, and though Richter blocked the first shot, Dan Travis buried the rebound with 16 seconds left to bring a 3-1 lead into the intermission.

The Crimson entered the second period with a sense of urgency. Senior Alex Meintel won a faceoff at 4-on-4 and passed it back to junior Brian McCafferty. After McCafferty put the puck on net, Taylor jumped on the rebound to score just 1:37 into the second.

Harvard converted on the power play to tie it up at 8:24 in the second. Off a pass from junior Jimmy Fraser, sophomore Chad Morin smashed a slapshot through a line of Quinnipiac defensemen to even the game at three.

“Sometimes the puck has eyes,” Morin said of his clean shot. “Sometimes you’re lucky and it doesn’t hit anybody going through.”

Though the Crimson racked up six penalties overall, with four coming in the second period alone, its penalty kill managed to erase all of them down despite heavy pressure from the Bobcats.

“Penalty killing was a big part of tonight’s tie for us,” Morin said. “Lately we’ve been faced with some adversity on the penalty kill. From the forwards down to the D, everyone really came together and kind of made a team effort to focus on the penalty kill and get the job done.”

Both teams were scoreless in the third period, and the game went into overtime.

In the final moments, Dufault shot a one-timer at the Bobcats goal, but Quinnipiac netminder Bud Fisher was too quick. Meintel had another chance to earn the win for the Crimson as he shook off his defender and snapped a wrist shot toward the goal, but the puck just missed the net, leaving Harvard with a draw.

“We’re never happy with losses or ties,” Donato said, “but you know with the situation we had created, I think that a tie was very-well earned.”

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