Harvard Rallies to Top UNH

The Harvard men's hockey team overcame an early four-goal deficit and came away with a 7-6 victory over the University of New Hampshire Tuesday night at Bright Hockey Center.

The Crimson was down 4-0 after the first period and a 5-2 midway through the second, but scored four goals in the second period and then took control in the third.

Freshman forward Colin Blackwell scored the game-tying and go-ahead goals for Harvard (3-3-1, 2-3-1 ECAC) in the middle of the third period to put Harvard up 6-5 in this high-scoring affair. The Crimson withstood a late resurgence by UNH (5-6-2, 4-4-1, Hockey East) and hung on for the 7-6 win.

“It was quite a crazy game,” said Harvard coach Ted Donato '91. “Every puck that went towards the net had a chance of going in there for awhile. Being down 4-0 after the first, we just talked about giving ourselves a chance to be able to hold our heads high walking out of there.”

The first period just did not belong to the Crimson. The Wildcats came out strong and put two pucks in the net in just over five minutes. UNH freshman Grayson Downing capitalized on a rebound in from the right slot 83 seconds into the game and Kevin Goumas scored off a centering pass from Nick Sorkin on the power play.

“They had us on our heels early,” Donato said. “Even though they didn’t have to necessarily work so hard on a couple of their goals, you could really see their speed and skill.”

After a couple of soft goals, Donato decided to replace sophomore goalie Raphael Girard with freshman Steve Michalek. But this did not stop the UNH offense, as it was just one of those games where anything near the net had a chance of going in.

Downing scored another off a redirect and defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk scored off a slap shot from the point. After four goals against in the first 12 minutes of the game, Donato called a timeout and the team seemed to settle down a bit after that.

And entering the second period, Harvard looked like a whole different squad. The team began to clamp down on the Wildcats fast-paced transition offense and earn some offensive-zone time for itself.

“We came into the first intermission, and a couple guys had their heads down,” Blackwell said. “But the older guys brought us back together and came together as a team and said hey, can’t get any worse than this.”

The Crimson’s first goal came early in the second on a power play goal from assistant captain Alex Killorn after a pass across the net from junior forward Marshall Everson.

“Once we got that first one the floodgates started opening, and we started to finally play like Harvard hockey,” Blackwell said.

A couple minutes later senior Eric Kroshus scored on a hard wrist shot from the left faceoff circle after a pass up along the boards from freshman defenseman Patrick McNally.

The comeback was delayed briefly by a shorthanded UNH goal by Goumas on a hard slap shot to the glove side after a broken-up pass.

“They might have gotten a little too comfortable,” Blackwell said. “But we already started coming back and we weren’t going to give up then so we just get kept fighting.”

The Crimson put two more in the net before the start of the third. Junior forward Alex Fallstrom scored from a pass from Killorn after a Wildcat turnover in the defensive zone.  Killorn then later scored himself, his second of the game, directing a pass from Fallstrom five seconds before intermission.

Cutting the deficit to one, Harvard entered the third period ready to attack and battle, playing what Donato believed to be its best period of the night.

Blackwell has shown some flash so far this season, but the two goals he scored to give the Crimson the victory were more of a testament to his effort.

The game-tying goal was put in off a rebound from a deflection by junior David Valek on a slap shot by captain Ryan Grimshaw. And Blackwell gave the team the lead on a redirect of a shot from sophomore defenseman Dan Ford.

“He really just competes,” Donato said. “He can skate and he’s got great skills, but he goes for the tough areas and he throws his body around. His style of play and his work ethic definitely gives our bench a big boost."

Valek added an empty-net goal to seal the win for Harvard, despite a last-second goal from UNH forward Stevie Moses.

Overall, Donato was happy with the resilient win as well the offensive spark for the Crimson in the last two periods.

“In the end of the day I think there’s something real positive for us in that fact that we were able to win game that we didn’t play perfectly,” he said. “We were able to score seven goals when quite frankly there’s been some times [when] that’s been a decent month for us.”

In what looked like a lost night for Harvard early on, the Crimson was able to turn it around and make this a confidence boosting victory.

“I’m really proud of the way the guys persevered,” Donato said. “It was a real uplifting night for us.”