Beanpot Blowout Provides Harvard Little Consolation

BOSTON—For all the hoopla surrounding the annual Beanpot tournament, the one thing that often gets overlooked is just how difficult it is to play for third place.

Last night in a nearly-empty TD Garden, the Harvard men’s hockey team (6-14-3, 6-7-3 ECAC) met Northeastern (13-12-1, 8-10-1 Hockey East) in the consolation game of the 58th Beanpot, falling, 4-1, in a contest that lacked energy and spirit.

“You’re going after the afterglow of the Monday night game, with its big crowd and a lot of energy,” Huskies coach Greg Cronin said. “It’s tough for both teams to go out in a big arena like this when there’s nobody in it.”

Playing its third game in four nights, the Crimson started the game slow and never quite found its spark.

Harvard was given a series of gifts early on, as Northeastern was called for three penalties in the first period—including back-to-back penalties to Chris Donovan and Mike Hewkin to give the Crimson 86 seconds of 5-on-3 play.

But Harvard failed to capitalize, generating just one shot in its three first-period power-play chances.

Instead, it was the Huskies who got on the board first, striking with seconds remaining on Hewkin’s hitting-from-behind penalty.

Northeastern captain Tyler McNeely took a pass from freshman Jake Newton and got Crimson junior blueliner Chris Huxley one-on-one on the left boards. McNeely shook Huxley to streak towards the net alone, beating junior goaltender Ryan Carroll to light the lamp at 17:53.

“I picked up the puck, and I think the defenseman thought I was slowing down to make a move,” McNeely explained. “I just tried to pull it wide and pull it around the goalie and put it far side.”

A minute after McNeely’s tally, Harvard senior Ian Tallett drew an interference penalty that extended to the beginning of the second frame.

“I thought we started the game a little bit flat—put ourselves in some tough situations penalty-wise,” said Crimson coach Ted Donato ’91.

Although the Huskies could not capitalize on the power play, just a few seconds later, Drew Daniels got the puck from J.P. Maley and fired a laser from the blue line. Carroll made the initial save, but assistant captain Greg Costa picked up the rebound, brought it out to the right side of the net, and backhanded it into the cage.

For the rest of the period, Harvard would come together to play its best hockey of the night.

Costa and Crimson sophomore Alex Killorn were boxed for back-to-back penalties, and in the 4-on-4 situation, Harvard found the room to create a chance.

Immediately following a faceoff, senior defender Chad Morin received the puck on the blue line. He crossed it to sophomore Ryan Grimshaw at the left point, and the blueliner let a long shot fly.

Freshman Conor Morrison was standing by the left post to redirect the puck into the net and cut Northeastern’s lead in half, 2-1.

Harvard outshot the Huskies in the second frame by a 15-9 count, but the momentum gathered in the period wasn’t sustained through intermission.

“In the third period, it was a combination of Northeastern wearing us down and us running out of gas,” Donato said. “Give Northeastern a lot of credit, but for us, the bench got too short, too soon.”

Harvard’s weariness started to show early in the period, when freshman David Valek was whistled for hitting from behind. A minute into the ensuing power play, the Huskies bumped their advantage up to two.

Northeastern freshman Garrett Vermeersch wound up for a hard slapshot from the blue line that was deflected in by junior Wade MacLeod. Kyle Kraemer had the secondary assist.

“I thought we were a little sloppy early, but I like the way we played the third period,” Cronin said.

After MacLeod’s tally, the Huskies controlled the game, peppering Carroll with pucks. The junior netminder stood up to the pressure, making a series of split saves and a beauty of a glove nab on a on a wide-open McNeely shot.

Donato pulled Carroll, who finished with 30 saves, from the net with just under two minutes to play, and it didn’t take long for Northeastern to take advantage.

MacLeod got the puck just inside the blue line and rifled a shot that found nothing but the empty net.

“I think it was fortunate that we had a lot of energy in the third period, and we were obviously reinforced by our goaltending,” Cronin said.

Husky rookie Chris Rawlings stood up exceedingly well to the pressure of his first Beanpot tournament, allowing just three goals on 63 shots between last night’s game and last Monday’s 2-1 loss to Boston University.

But for Harvard, the loss simply sends the tired squad back to the drawing board as it prepares for the home stretch of the regular season.

“Obviously, we’re disappointed,” Donato said. “[We’ve played] a lot of hockey over the last four or five days, and I think it kind of caught up with us.”

—Staff writer Kate Leist can be reached at kleist@fas.harvard.edu.