Harvard Avenges Loss to Tigers

Revenge couldn’t have tasted sweeter for the Harvard men’s hockey team on Saturday night at the Bright Hockey Center.

After losing to Princeton 4-1 in the finals of last season’s ECAC Championship tournament and 5-1 earlier this year, the Crimson ended its regular season on a high note with a 3-2 victory over the Tigers on Senior Night. The win clinched the fifth seed and home ice for the first round of the ECAC tournament, with play slated to begin next weekend.

“Last year in the playoffs, they took something from us that we wanted real bad and then earlier this year they gave us a pretty good beating up at their place,” co-captain Brian McCafferty said. “To come out tonight, especially on Senior Night, was something special, especially for our seniors.”

After the game ended, a ceremony was held to honor the four seniors on the team: captains McCafferty and Jimmy Fraser, as well as forwards Nick Coskren and Steve Rolecek.

“I thought our seniors in particular led our team in all there was tonight,” said Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91. “I think that as a group they are very happy beating a very good Princeton team and finishing the season strong.”

Despite strong play by the Harvard fourth-years, it was junior forward Doug Rogers who stole the night’s show, tallying one power-play goal in the first period and nearly scoring again in the third.

With the man-advantage halfway through the last period, sophomore forward Matt McCollem skated down low on the right side before firing the puck across the face of the goal to Rogers, who was waiting at the ready at the left post.

“The second [goal] was just a faceoff play that we’ve been working on in practice, which has worked for us a couple times this year,” Rogers said. “Matty threw [the puck] across and made a great play.”

This game-winning goal, however, was ultimately awarded to McCollem when video footage later indicated the puck never actually hit Rogers’ stick.

But there was no confusion surrounding the first goal the junior was involved in scoring. At 12:09 in the first, just six minutes after Princeton scored the first goal and jumped into the lead, Rogers received the puck, dead center in front of the net, from freshman forward Daniel Moriarty.

“I got the puck on the half-low, and no one really came to me, so I just started skating towards the net, and still no one really came to me,” Rogers said. “It just kind of opened up for me.”

Finding no obstruction to the goal, Rogers proceeded to rifle the puck in the top right shelf past Tigers goaltender Zane Kalemba’s shoulder to tie the game up at 1-1.

The Crimson survived a penalty-ridden first period that also saw them outshot 17-8 by Princeton and was better able to dictate the game’s pace in the second.

“Sometimes the penalties hinder your ability to get something going offensively, and sometimes they’re a result of spending too much time in your zone and the other team carrying the play,” Donato said. “But I thought after the first period we did a much better job staying out of the box.”

Harvard drew first blood coming out of the break, scoring at 11:54 off a goal by sophomore forward Joe Smith. The tally was somewhat of a lucky break as Smith, assisted by senior Nick Coskren and captain Jimmy Fraser, surprised Kalemba with the attempt that skipped across the goal line.

However, the 2-1 lead was short-lived as Princeton struck just over two minutes later to send the teams into the third period tied.

Despite being outshot 14-9 by the Tigers in the third and having to play a man down for over three minutes, the Crimson was able to hang onto the win on the back of McCollem’s goal.

The victory was just the latest in Harvard’s five-game unbeaten run that began after the Beanpot finals. Prior to the streak, the Crimson suffered a 13-game winless winter through the months of December and January.

“We had a tough stretch before the Beanpot and before the New Year, and we just really stuck with it as a team and kind of found that chemistry,” Rogers said. “Everything’s starting to click now so hopefully [the momentum] will carry us through the playoffs.”

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