Power Play Strikes Again in Men's Hockey's 5-2 Win Over Dartmouth

A night removed from an emphatic opening rout at Dartmouth, the No. 11/11 Harvard men’s hockey team trailed the Big Green Saturday, but five different scorers allowed the Crimson to pull away, 5-2, at the Bright-Landry Hockey Center.

Co-captains Kyle Criscuolo and Jimmy Vesey and junior Tyler Moy scored for the second time in two nights, and freshman Ryan Donato earned his first collegiate goal as Harvard (2-0-0, 2-0-0 ECAC) paced to a more gradual win over the Big Green (0-2-0, 0-2-0) than the 7-0 spectacle in Hanover the night before.

“[Dartmouth] did a good job of blocking shots and keeping us to the outside,” Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91 said. “I thought at times we tried to get a little bit fancy and wanted things to be a little bit pretty, but when we did try to establish our ground game behind the net and [were] holding onto pucks and using our speed in small areas, I thought we were pretty effective.”

Dartmouth allowed just two shots on goal in the second period, but both of them beat senior goaltender Charles Grant. After Big Green coach Bob Gaudet called upon his players for an extra level of “feistiness” Friday, the visitors played a more coordinated game Saturday but yielded seven penalties to a high-powered Harvard power play.

“It’s hard to claw back when maybe your confidence level isn’t there, and I thought tonight we played the style, the identity we want to play,” Gaudet said Saturday. “We were fierce, but…it wasn’t good enough.”

After a perfect three-for-three performance on Friday, Harvard’s power play units were good for three more goals Saturday.

Vesey produced another highlight on the power play, batting a bouncing puck out of midair at the side of the crease to give Harvard a 4-2 lead at 11:02 in the second period. Junior defenseman Victor Newell also scored on a second-period power play, while Criscuolo tied the game in the first period seconds after Harvard’s first power play of the game expired.

“It’s certainly nice having Number 19 [Vesey] out there when he can make some stuff out of nothing,” Ted Donato said. “He made a tremendous hand-eye play on his goal down there, and the great part is, we feel we can be dangerous with our second [power-play unit].”

Dartmouth senior center Nick Bligh dealt the hosts their first deficit of the year with an unmarked even strength wrist shot from the right circle at 6:35 in the first period, but Criscuolo poked a knuckling puck past Dartmouth forward Brad Schierhorn and through Grant’s pads for a fluky equalizer at 12:59. Moy proceeded to take the lead for Harvard with a long wrap-around that squeezed around the right post at 16:29.

Newell extended Harvard’s lead to two at 4:10 in the second period with a rocketing left-circle shot that found the inside of the upper right post, but Dartmouth’s Corey Kalk threaded a gap between sophomore goaltender Merrick Madsen’s left shoulder and the post just over a minute later to make the game 3-2.

Ryan Donato drew multiple Dartmouth penalties before recording his first collegiate goal at 12:14 in the third period. Senior linemate Colin Blackwell fed the freshman and coach’s son for a wrist shot high in the slot to cap the night’s scoring.

His father took the goal for what it was: an insurance marker in a conference game.

“I think I was more just relieved we were able to get that three-goal lead,” Ted Donato said. “But I’m happy for him, he’s working hard, and I’m sure he’s having a lot of fun.”