Surging Quinnipiac Too Much for Harvard

The Qunnipiac men’s hockey team has been a juggernaut lately, and on Friday, the Harvard men’s hockey team did nothing to stand in its way.

Led by forward Eric Lampe—who had a hat trick in the game—the No. 20 Bobcats (8-1-0, 4-0 ECAC) steamrolled the Crimson (1-3-1, 1-3-1 ECAC) in Hamden, Conn. this past weekend, by a score of 5-1.

The game started off slowly, and the first period remained scoreless until the last minute, when Lampe struck with the first goal of the game.

Harvard equalized early in the second, when junior forward Michael Biega slid in the rebound off a shot by freshman Louis Leblanc.

But the Crimson’s luck ended there, as Quinnipiac tallied two more goals in the next six minutes.

Lampe completed his hat trick midway through the third, and an empty net goal completed the Bobcats’ scoring spree.

Quinnipiac outshot Harvard, 33-28, but capitalized on the power play, scoring in two out of eight chances. The Crimson went zero for four.

Harvard felt that it was outplayed, but not outmatched, by the Bobcats.

“On paper, we’re probably better than them,” sophomore forward Alex Killorn said. “We just didn’t play the hockey we wanted to play.”

Quinnipiac has played impressive hockey this season, particularly on the offensive side. The team has scored at least three times in every game and averages 4.2 goals per game.

“They’re having a great season,” Killorn said. “They have a lot of skilled players and they’re pretty good offensively.”

“[Quinnipiac is] a hard-working team,” Leblanc added. “They scored five goals on us…they can produce some offense.”

But the Crimson felt the loss was more a product of its shortcomings than the Bobcats’ talent. Physicality and hustle were issues for Harvard, as were penalties.

“We like to have a hard forecheck, and we weren’t really hitting guys,” Killorn said. “Our shifts were too long…We made too many mistakes.”

“It was one of those games where we were taking a lot of penalties,” Leblanc added. “There was maybe a lack of discipline, [and] we were trying to do too much out there.”

The Crimson power play was equally ineffective, as the team failed to convert a five-on-three power play in the first period.

“Special teams weren’t really working,” Leblanc said. “We have a lot of stuff to keep working on.”

Killorn had a penalty shot opportunity late in the third period, but it was stopped by Bobcats goalie Dan Clark. Clark made 27 saves in the game, denying Harvard shot after shot.

Lampe also posed a problem for the Crimson, notching four points in the game and upping his stats to nine goals and 14 points for the season. Lampe leads the ECAC in goals.

“He’s one of the guys we were told to look out for, and we let him go,” Killorn said.

The game was aired on NESN, the first of six Harvard games to be broadcast on cable. The increased publicity added meaning to the game for some.

“It adds an element for a lot of players,” Killorn said. “A lot of people’s family or friends that can’t come to the game in person will be able to watch it. It does affect the team.”

The team felt the loss, but did its best to forget about it quickly, as it travelled to Princeton for an Ivy League matchup less than 24 hours after the Quinnipiac game ended.

“The only way to [deal with the close scheduling] is to completely forget about what happened before,” Killorn said. “We want to take the mistakes in the previous game and learn from them but mostly to forget what happened. It’s a new day, it’s a new team—let’s just go play our hockey.”