Crimson Gets Road Retribution, Dismantles Brown

Though it took much longer than expected, the Harvard men’s hockey team finally figured out a way to build a Bear trap.

After Brown, a 12-seed, shocked the fifth-seeded Crimson with a series sweep at Bright Hockey Center in the 2009 ECAC playoffs–and then followed that up with a 4-1 defeat of Harvard on Dec. 1–the Crimson finally got some redemption.

Senior forward Doug Rogers scored two goals and added an assist for Harvard (6-13-3, 6-7-3 ECAC), who took down the Bears (7-13-3, 5-8-3) on Friday night by a score of 5-2 at Meehan Auditorium in Providence, R.I.

Captain Alex Biega, junior forward Sam Bozoian, and freshman forward Louis Leblanc also added goals for the Crimson, whose five goals tied a season high and was the most since an Oct. 30 win over Dartmouth.

After junior goalie Kyle Richter struggled in a 6-0 loss to Boston College in the first round of the Beanpot Tournament last Monday, junior Ryan Carroll was back in net for the ECAC matchup.

Carroll was solid in goal, saving 27 of 29 Brown shots.

Until Saturday’s loss to Yale, the goaltender had allowed two goals or less in six consecutive games.

Harvard—which has often struggled after taking an early lead this season—was able to get on the board first at 9:04 in the opening period in a 4-on-4 situation.

The tally came when Rogers collected a rebound off an errant Biega shot. He then backhanded the puck off the skate of Brown goalie Mike Clemente and into the net.

Two minutes later, Biega again fired a slapshot from the left point. This time, it wasn’t wide, as it blew through a crowd and by Clemente. It was the captain’s second goal of the season.

But the Bears were able to strike right back at 14:31, when Jeff Bunivow scored off a one-timer from the left faceoff circle after a nice pass from teammate Jesse Fratkin.

As the first period wound down, Brown had a chance to tie the game on the power play, including an 80-second two-man advantage, but Carroll was able to make two saves off shots from Fratkin and Aaron Volpatti.

Missed chances by the Bears on power plays was a recurring theme throughout the night.

“We kind of committed to getting shots on net and limiting our turnovers,” Rogers said. “We were lucky [to win] with a lot of penalties. Had Brown converted on some of their power plays, it might’ve been a much different game.”

The Crimson was able to get off to a quick start in the second period, when Bozoian tipped a shot from senior Chad Morin from the middle of the blue line into the net at 2:33.

It was Bozoian’s first goal of the season, and he later picked up his first assist of the year on Leblanc’s shot.

But the Bears did not go quietly, as they were able to once again make it a one-goal game at 3-2 when Francis Drolet scored on a wraparound with five minutes to go in the second.

The rest of the period was scoreless, but the Bears opened the third on a power play after freshman defenseman Danny Biega was given a game misconduct after a hitting-from-behind call. The Crimson finished the game with 11 penalties.

“I think if we want to win games at the end of the season, especially when playoffs come, we’re definitely going to have to cut down on penalties,” Rogers said. “We have to play smarter. I think we make some poor decisions in certain situations, especially penalties in the offensive zone.”

But Brown quickly picked up two penalties of its own, giving it six for a total of 23 penalty minutes in the third period alone.

Leblanc took advantage at 3:30, when Bears backup goalie Volpatti couldn’t get on top of a rebound, leaving the freshman with a partially-open net.

It was Leblanc’s 10th goal of the season, which leads the team, and his sixth in seven games.

Carroll continued his strong play in net throughout the third period, and the Crimson was able to put the game away with a five-minute power play for the final 3:45 of the game.

“It was one of the weirder games I’ve ever played in,” sophomore Alex Killorn said. “There were three five-minute penalties. It seemed we were always on the power play or penalty kill.”

Rogers added his second goal of the evening on an empty net with 17.5 seconds remaining.

For Harvard, the focus is now on consistency. After going four games without a loss, the Crimson lost the two games previous to Friday night’s contest.

“We just have to stick to our game plan, to just trust each other, trust the system to execute,” Rogers said. “I think we get into trouble when we play a lot of one-on-one. If we play as a team, move the puck, and come out with 100 percent effort, we have the ability to win a lot of games. That’s easier said than done but if we can do that we’ll do very well here down the stretch.”