NOTEBOOK: Power-Play Efforts Can’t Stop Eagles

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass.—It wasn’t all bad.

The Crimson’s special teams managed to shut down five power-play opportunities for BC, who held a .211 conversion rate on the man-advantage coming into the contest.

And Harvard’s only goal came on a power play, when freshman Alex Killorn, who recently received ECAC honors for Rookie of the Week, seized the puck after a clearing attempt and passed it over to sophomore Matt McCollem, who then ripped a wrist shot from the slot to tie the score, 1-1, halfway through the second period.

But of the Crimson’s nine power-play opportunities, that was the only one time it managed to convert.

Sophomore Michael Biega had a chance to tie the score on a man-advantage early in the second period, but BC netminder John Muse blocked him on the right post.

Late in the third period, the Crimson squandered a 5-on-3 power play that lasted over 50 seconds.

Senior Jimmy Fraser had the best opportunity to score on the man-advantage, but Muse jumped in front of the puck to make a tough pad save, robbing Fraser of the goal.

“We had some good chances [on the power play],” said Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91. “Really, to me, could our power play have been more effective? Absolutely. But the story of the game wasn’t about BC’s great skill being too much for us. I thought they just wanted it a little more in the third period.”

MIND THE NET

Although Boston College outshot the Crimson 15-3 in the first period, freshman goaltender Matt Hoyle’s solid play limited the Eagles to one goal in the frame.

The rookie made 31 saves overall, but with BC nearly doubling Harvard in shots, 36-19, Hoyle’s efforts were not enough to keep the Crimson in the game against the Eagles, the No. 5 team in the nation in scoring offense with 3.67 goals per game.

The rookie was pulled with less than four minutes remaining in the game and was replaced by junior netminder John Riley.

The Crimson had allowed only six even-strength goals in its last nine games coming into Friday, but that number was nearly doubled against the Eagles, as all five of BC’s goals were scored without a man-advantage.

“Usually our team relies strongly on 5-on-5 play,” Alex Biega said. “Unfortunately, against BC, we weren’t really focused enough to take the game in our hands and shove the puck down their throats and play in their zone the majority of the game.”

GOING MENTAL

After a hard-fought first two periods, things went haywire for a suddenly overwhelmed Crimson squad.

“I thought we had a good second period,” Donato said. “Even though they got the goal at the end of the second, I thought we could regroup and come out and win the third.”

But Harvard failed to turn things around at the beginning of the final frame. Instead, the team allowed two more goals in the first five minutes and falling behind, 4-1. With the lapse, the Crimson just wasn’t able to recover mentally.

“We got discouraged when they scored a couple goals in the third period,” junior defenseman Alex Biega said. “At one point, it was 3-1, 4-1, and we didn’t really react to it the way we should’ve as a team, collectively. We didn’t really fire back. It’s pretty evident looking at the shot chart—we only had 19 shots the whole game. That right there is an indication that we didn’t want to win it badly enough.”

TWO-MINUTE MINORS

The last time the squads faced off—last year’s Beanpot championship in February—the Crimson battled into overtime, tying the score three times in regular play, before finally yielding, 6-5, in the extra session...Boston College leads the series with Harvard 66-44-5...The Crimson has yet to win a game on the road this season.

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