Eagles Soar in Beanpot Stunner

BOSTON—Back to reality.

It was nice to think about, especially as the score remained tantalizingly close—the possibility of bringing a Beanpot title back to Harvard for the first time since 1993. And yes, there was dignity in the way the Crimson played, pushing the seventh-best hockey team in the nation to its limit.

But now there are other things to think about. Improving a .500 conference record. Gaining pole position for the ECAC playoffs. Making the NCAA Tournament. After losing to Boston College, 6-5, in overtime last night at TD Banknorth Garden in a Beanpot championship game for the ages, the Harvard men’s hockey team will have to find its glory elsewhere.

“I’m excited about where this group is right now,” Crimson coach Ted Donato ’91 said following the loss, adding, “I thought they really competed and I told them I couldn’t be prouder of the effort.”

After the Eagles (15-6-7, 9-4-6 Hockey East) jumped out to an early lead, Harvard (9-11-3, 7-7-2 ECAC) countered with two impressive first-period scores of its own. The first came courtesy of co-captain Mike Taylor, who entered the BC zone and banked the puck off of the boards and back to his own stick to set himself up for a game-tying laser from the right faceoff circle.

Taylor’s deft maneuvering was indicative of the consistently high quality of play that both teams would exhibit throughout the night.

“Mike Taylor was, in my eyes, the best player in the tournament,” Donato said. “I thought he was outstanding both games, really a factor every time he was on the ice both offensively and defensively.”

Five minutes later, it was sophomore Doug Rogers’ turn to provide his team with a spark, stealing the puck from Tim Filangieri at the Eagles blue line and feeding it to freshman Matt McCollem, who went top-right to beat BC netminder John Muse for the Crimson’s only lead.

“[We had] this feeling like our whole team was on the same boat,” Taylor said of his team’s ability to match the Eagles goal-for-goal. “We knew how special this opportunity was and how lucky you are to get this chance…we told the other guys this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, you can’t take it for granted, and we played desperate.”

The second period, however, saw BC regain the momentum, erasing Harvard’s lead and claiming a 3-2 advantage of its own before the 10-minute mark. And after Rogers opened the third by knotting the score at 3, the Eagles responded by building its biggest lead of the night, scoring twice to open up a 5-3 advantage.

“You can do a lot of things right versus good hockey teams and still fall behind a little bit,” Donato said. “But our guys kept battling, kept putting pucks on net, and I really believe that the group felt the entire time that we were going to make a run.”

With time running out on its Beanpot title hopes, the Crimson rallied for two scores in the final 10 minutes of regulation. The first belonged to senior Jon Pelle, whose path to the Eagles net was cleared when one BC defender got tangled up with a referee while another bit on his fake.

With less than five minutes to go in regulation, it was Taylor who netted Harvard’s final goal, arriving at the back door to redirect a shot that freshman Alex Biega had launched at the net from the blue line.

“It was that relentless attitude,” co-captain David MacDonald said of the comeback. “We knew we had the chance to do something special, and we weren’t gonna take anything laying down, we were gonna put it all on the line.”

Despite the Crimson’s persistence, however, and the momentum it had accumulated as regulation ended, overtime belonged to the Eagles.

BC managed seven shots in the extra frame to the Crimson’s none, and it was on the last two Eagles offerings that Harvard finally buckled. After the effort of making a save on a shot from Matt Greene forced Richter to the ice, Nick Petrecki streaked in from the left side to find a loose puck and an open net, ending Harvard’s bid to be hailed as the best hockey team in Boston.

“I couldn’t be prouder of the effort,” Donato said of his team. “Overtime usually is about a bounce here or there, and I give BC credit, they were able to get a lot of pressure on us.”

He paused at that point, his voice trailing off as he seemed to remember how close his team had come.

“I thought it was a great hockey game,” he said.

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