Crimson Flies Over Dutchmen in Easy Victory

It wasn’t pretty at times, but the Harvard men’s hockey team (5-11-4, 5-6-4 ECAC) got the job done on Friday night at the Bright Hockey center with a 3-1 win over visiting Union (12-12-1, 5-8-0 ECAC). The win was the Crimson’s first in over two months and effectively ended a 13-game winless streak.

“I told the guys after [the game] that it wasn’t exactly a pretty win and we didn’t do all the things that we wanted to do,” said Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91. “But at this point, we’ll take it and hopefully we’ll use it as confidence and continue to improve. I think our guys are excited and quite honestly a little relieved to finally get in the win column.”

Junior forward Doug Rogers got the scoring action going at 13:10 in the first, seconds after Harvard’s first power-play opportunity ended. Assistant captain Alex Biega stole the puck from a Union defenseman before passing it to Rogers, waiting on the left post. Though Rogers missed his first attempt at goal, clumsy goaltending by Dutchmen netminder Corey Milan allowed Rogers to bury it on the rebound.

“[Biega] gave me a great pass right on my stick,” Rogers said. “I’m not going to lie; I kinda fanned on the first one, but [the puck] luckily came back to me and I was able to slide it in.”

Co-captain Jimmy Fraser almost doubled the lead minutes after the first goal when his shot from the blue line hit the crossbar. The Crimson continued to dominate play during the first period, attempting a total of 20 shots as compared with Union’s 11 efforts.

The second period, however, proved to be a different story. While the first period was characterized by clean play and fast-moving hockey, penalties in the second period cluttered play and slowed the game’s speed, swinging the momentum in the Dutchmen’s favor.

Union looked to even the score at 1:30 in the second when the Dutchmen unleashed a two-on-one attack on Harvard goaltender freshman Matt Hoyle, who deflected the wide-open attempt off his stick at the last moment.

“I think sometimes penalties can have an effect on the game and I think the neutral zone was pretty well tied up,” Donato said.

Amidst the Union onslaught, the Crimson managed to score on a power-play opportunity when sophomore forward Pier-Olivier Michaud tipped Biega’s shot on goal past Milan and into the net for a 2-0 lead. The Dutchmen quickly responded less than two minutes later with a power-play goal of their own.

Union continued to look for the goal throughout the second and third, holding a 43-27 total shot advantage over Harvard during the two periods. Despite its offensive blitz, the Dutchmen just couldn’t find the back of the net.

“This is a good Union team,” Donato said. “They’re well coached, they come at you and their first line is very good.”

Harvard added an insurance goal with just 43 seconds remaining on the clock. Union coach Nate Learman had pulled Milan with just under a minute left to give the Dutchmen an extra skater on the ice. But the move ultimately failed, as senior forward Nick Coskren dove past a Dutchmen defender to give the puck a final push into the net.

Coskren’s empty-netter made the final score 3-1 in favor of the Crimson, giving the team its first win since Nov. 15.

“We did the simple things well [Friday night],” Biega said. “We established our forecheck, we got our lines going—that’s something we’ve done well, getting shots on the net. We had to simplify our game and just do the simple things first. I think as a team we’re starting to up our game and play the way we should be playing.”

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