Late Goal Ends Contest in 3-3 Draw

Oh, Canada. Facing off against McGill in a preseason exhibition game, the Harvard men’s hockey team battled to a 3-3 tie with the Canadian squad at Bright Hockey Center on Friday. Although the Crimson outshot McGill, 49-18, and had 13 powerplay chances—including a few minutes of 5-on-3 play—Harvard was unable to get the winning goal past McGill goaltender Hubert Morin.

“McGill’s a smart team, and when the goalie’s playing that well, it can make it awfully difficult to feel good about generating shots,” Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91 said. “We had plenty of opportunities, and obviously our power play needs to be more effective, but there are certainly a few positives that came out of the game.”

“We outshot the team, but we couldn’t really score,” freshman Louis LeBlanc added. “Overall, it was a really good game, though.”

McGill jumped out to an early lead in the first period, with forwards Giullaume Doucet and Francis Varreault-Paul slipping a shot each past Crimson junior netminder Kyle Richter, who returned to Harvard ice for the first time since the 2007-2008 season.

But the Crimson had a few solid scoring chances, with 15 shots in the first period and 14 in the second. Halfway through the opening frame, senior defenseman Doug Rogers rocketed a shot at McGill’s net and took a swipe at the rebound, but Morin was too quick and saved both attempts.

And in the last minute of the first period, LeBlanc maneuvered through the McGill blueliners to launch a shot, which bounced off Morin’s pad. Although the rookie pounced on the rebound and prepared to rip a follow-up, a pair of defenseman double-teamed him and stole the puck.

“Even though we had the puck in their zone a lot, they made it very difficult,” Donato said. “[McGill] looks like they’re a little bit further advanced right now in their season than us, but I was happy with the way our guys persevered, and I thought we really had a great sense of urgency in the second half of the game.”

The Biega brothers initiated the Crimson comeback. With 20 seconds left in the first frame, junior Michael Biega took up a pass from LeBlanc and ripped a shot over Morin’s shoulder to put Harvard on the board, 1-2. Doucet scored his second goal of the night in the middle period, restoring the Canadians’ lead to two points.

But at 10:49 in the third period, captain Alex Biega fired a slapshot off freshman Conor Morrison’s pass to narrow the gap to 3-2.

Rogers—who had a total of six shots over the night and led both teams with 15 faceoff wins—launched an unassisted slapshot from the right, evening the score at three with just over two minutes left in regulation play.

“The bench was hungry to put pucks on the net and get that game tied up,” Donato said. “Their goalie was awfully good for the entire game and especially in the third, but I was really pleased with the way our guys kept coming.”

Although the Crimson failed to seal the deal in overtime, Richter came in with a clutch save against McGill’s Patrick Belzile, who ripped a shot with 25.9 seconds left on the clock, keeping the game at a tie.

Harvard was unable to pull out a victory against the Canadian squad, but the Crimson made some waves on the offensive front, largely because of the highly-touted freshman class, which made its collegiate debut over the weekend. While none of the rookies scored, they took a combined 19 shots on goal.

LeBlanc led the squad in shots on goal with eight attempts, and he earned an assist on Michael Biega’s first-period goal.

“Louie was tenacious on the puck all night,” Donato said.

“He shows up ready to play from the drop of the puck. They’re young, our freshman, but they did a lot of good things.”

Freshmen Marshall Everson and Danny Biega fired off four and three shots, respectively, and rookie Conor Morrison also earned an assist.

“They add a lot of talent and skill to the game,” Alex Biega added. “These are going to be impact players, and they really stepped up and filled roles right away.”

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