Men's Ice Hockey Shut Out By Yale In Game 2 of ECAC Tournament Quarterfinals

UPDATED: March 15, 2015, at 1:09 a.m.

NEW HAVEN, Conn.—Harvard sophomore forward Sean Malone saw an opening on Alex Lyon’s blocker side. Seconds later, Yale senior forward Trent Ruffolo saw the puck in the back of the Crimson’s net.

For the Harvard men’s ice hockey team, roughly five seconds in the final minute made the difference in a 2-0 loss in Game 2 of the ECAC tournament quarterfinals on Saturday.

Skating with an extra attacker on a penalty kill, Malone created a rush off the Crimson bench and clanged an open wrist shot off Yale’s inside left post, which forwarded the puck to Ruffolo, who buried an insurance marker from neutral ice into Harvard’s empty net with 27 seconds left in regulation at Ingalls Rink.

The score held for sophomore goaltender Lyon’s school-record seventh shutout of the season as the Bulldogs (18-8-5, 12-6-4 ECAC) staved off elimination and forced a deciding Game 3 date with the Crimson (18-12-3, 11-8-3) on Sunday.

“I think we’re frustrated because I thought we played a good game, did a lot of good things,” Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91 said. “Our guys kept coming…. Give [Yale] credit; they played well, but I thought our guys really battled and played a good hockey game and carried the play for most of the night.”

In a tight defensive game, Yale junior defenseman Mitch Witek was the only skater to beat either goaltender on Saturday, getting the Bulldogs on the board off an outside deflected shot at 3:43 in the second period. The Crimson rang iron twice in the last six minutes of the final period, including a crossbar attempt from sophomore forward Alex Kerfoot in the slot.

Despite consistent Harvard pressure in the game’s final stages, Yale sophomore forwards Chris Izmirlian and Mike Doherty broke free for a 2-on-1 break that forced Crimson junior defenseman Desmond Bergin into a hooking penalty with 1:40 left in regulation, taking away Harvard’s chance to tie the game with six attackers. Yet Malone, coming off the bench with a minute gone in the penalty kill and Michalek pulled, came painstakingly close to an equalizer regardless.

“That last one by Malone is a great shot and just kind of indicative of how the game was going,” Crimson co-captain Max Everson said. “Pucks just weren’t crossing the goal line for us.”

A night after winning at Ingalls Rink for the first time since Jan. 2005, the Crimson started the night a step quicker than the Bulldogs, carrying the play in the first period and drawing two power plays. Lyon’s blocker turned away the first frame’s best opportunity—a backdoor chance by junior co-captain Kyle Criscuolo off a feed from classmate Jimmy Vesey on a power play.

In the second period, Harvard continued to limit Yale’s opportunities to the outside, yet Witek telegraphed one of those opportunities in. Sophomore forward Frankie DiChiara created space at the left point for the junior defenseman, who snapped an open shot that deflected off the stick of Criscuolo, who had fallen to the ice for the shot-block.

“I think we just played a lot better than we did yesterday,” said Witek, who picked up his fourth career goal in 87 games. “We started out a little bit slow yesterday. We had more intensity tonight.”

Lyon (24 saves) had plenty of help from his teammates, who clogged up shooting lanes and blocked 19 Harvard shot attempts. The Crimson went 0-for-4 on the power play, and Vesey, who leads Division I in goals per game, was held to only two shots on goal.

Michalek (19 saves), meanwhile, was tested sparingly Saturday, yet he toed away a two-on-one Yale break early in the third frame and padded away a second-chance opportunity from junior forward Cody Learned in the slot with 3:30 left.

The Crimson and Bulldogs now rank tied-for-17th and 14th in the PairWise Rankings, respectively. Both will need a win on Sunday to extend their respective seasons.

“I think if we bring the same compete-level and the same effort, we can expect a different result tomorrow night,” Everson said.