Harvard Stumbles in Home Opener, Falls to Saints

It was a tough, physical, and often violent night for the Harvard men’s hockey team (1-4-1, 1-4-1 ECAC) in its Friday home opener against St. Lawrence (7-4-1, 3-2-0 ECAC), one in which the Crimson came up short, falling 3-2 to the Saints.

In a game that saw a total of 14 penalties—including a 10-minute misconduct charge on St. Lawrence’s Mike McKenzie in the third period for instigating a fight that ended up with freshman forward Louis LeBlanc losing both his helmet and his footing—Harvard had plenty of man-advantage opportunities.

But the Crimson was only able to convert two of its six powerplay attempts and ultimately failed to establish a dynamic forecheck, settling instead for shooting from just beyond the blue line.

“We were able to generate some shots, but we need to be able to contribute on the power play and be able to win the special teams game,” Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91 said. “We got two tonight, but we still don’t win the special teams game, and that ultimately could be the difference in the game.”

Harvard also gave up a number of penalties of its own. In the first frame alone, the Crimson suffered four unanswered penalties and played two men down for almost a full minute.

Though Harvard survived the Saints’ five-on-three advantage, it couldn’t outlast St. Lawrence’s next powerplay opportunity. About halfway into the frame, wide-open Saints freshman George Hughes scored his first collegiate goal with a powerful slapshot from the blue line.

“We gave them life out of the gate,” Donato said. “We left a window open for them to climb through by taking those penalties in the first period and not really controlling the play as much as we could have if we had remained five-on-five.”

But the tide changed in favor of the Crimson in the following frame, as St. Lawrence committed three consecutive errors of its own.

After a relatively even first period, Harvard went on the offensive during the final two frames, outshooting the Saints by 14, largely as a result of a flurry of St. Lawrence penalties.

Junior forward Michael Biega capitalized on one at 8:33 into the second, when he received the puck from junior forward Chris Huxley near the right point. Biega waited to skate through a narrow opening in the Saints defense and scored from close range.

“I think in the first powerplay goal, Michael Biega showed good patience,” Donato said.

But it wasn’t long before St. Lawrence regained the lead, scoring from point-blank range less than four minutes later on yet another powerplay goal. The Saints tallied the eventual game-winner at the start of the third for the night’s only even-strength goal, when Peter Child found the back of the net immediately off a faceoff on the left point, lifting the puck up and over junior goaltender Kyle Richter’s left shoulder to make it 3-1.

The Crimson fought back throughout the third, holding a 14-11 advantage in shots.

Just three minutes after Child’s tally and with 12:51 left on the clock, Saints netminder Alex Petizian twice came up big, as he first blocked Huxley’s one-timer at goal and again stopped the rebound from LeBlanc as the rookie came crashing through. The ensuing celebration from St. Lawrence—at the expense of LeBlanc—devolved into four-man pile-up and a total of four penalties were handed out as a result.

Sophomore forward Alex Killorn managed to pull one back for the Crimson with about 12 minutes left to play in the final frame, when he scored from a difficult angle on the right, wristing the puck across the face of goal and into the left side of the net.

Despite Harvard’s offensive intensity during the third, the Crimson was unable to put another past Petizian as the Saints’ defense blocked shot after shot.

“We just have to tighten up, and we have to be better, be more consistent throughout the game both offensively and defensively,” captain Alex Biega said. “Their goalie played well, but we have to really find that confidence and just get more shots on net and play a Harvard style of hockey.”

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