Strong Offensive Effort Overpowers League Foe

What a difference a week makes.

The Harvard men’s hockey team easily overcame last weekend’s road losses with a 5-1 victory over No. 16 Clarkson at Bright Hockey Center on Friday night.

The Crimson scored three times within seven minutes early in the game to take the lead. After the explosive first period, Harvard never looked back, scoring once in each of the remaining periods to secure the win. In stark contrast to last weekend’s losses to Rensselaer and Union in which the Crimson was plagued by penalties, Harvard managed to stay out of the box and score with even pressure on Friday night.

“I was very pleased with the effort,” said Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91. “We definitely played more disciplined, stayed out of the box, and it was a team game, as opposed to just a special teams game, and I think it reaped benefits. I really felt that staying out of the box really allowed us to establish a good solid team game.”

Consistent play up and down the line contributed to Friday night’s win—four different players scored the five goals. Senior forward Nick Coskren scored twice while sophomore forwards Michael Del Mauro, Matt McCollem, and Joe Smith each found the back of the net once.

Del Mauro tallied the first goal at 9:46 into the game after Smith forechecked a Clarkson defender and poked away the puck to a waiting Del Mauro. The sophomore forward rifled the shot past the goalkeeper from the left circle.

Minutes later, the Crimson scored again. Coskren stuffed the puck into the net just five seconds into a Harvard power play.

“Right before the faceoff, I had actually told [junior defenseman] Alex [Biega] to just wrist one into me, it didn’t even have to be hard,” Coskren said. “He shot it, a low shot, right to my forehand, and I had my stick about a foot off the ice, and it was an easy shot to tip, and it just bounced in.”

With the momentum of two unanswered goals behind it, the Crimson offense surged forward, firing shot after shot at the Golden Knights’ goaltender. The added pressure worked, as Smith made it 3-0 with 3:40 left to play in the first period.

But the Golden Knights weren’t finished. With just 0:35 to go in the first period, Clarkson finally scored when Lauri Tuohimaa slipped the puck in behind freshman goaltender Matt Hoyle. The Crimson found the back of the net twice in the final two periods, which lacked the intensity that characterized play in the opening frame.

With 2:10 to go in the second period, McCollem took advantage of the forecheck to beat two Clarkson defenders and find Coskren, who fired the puck into the goal for his second tally of the night.

“The second goal was an excellent play by Matt McCollem,” Coskren said. “You know, he went in there and took out both of their [defensemen].”

McCollem netted a goal for himself in the third period when he deflected a shot from co-captain Jimmy Fraser into the net to make the final score 5-1.

Solid goaltending and clean play ultimately proved to be two key ingredients in Harvard’s win over Clarkson. As the team moves forward into the thick of the young season, it will look to duplicate the effects of this basic formula for success.

—Staff writer Lucy D. Chen can be reached at lucychen@fas.harvard.edu.