Men's Hockey Falls in OT to No. 2/1 Quinnipiac Despite Four-Goal Comeback

NEW YORK—Another year, another beating delivered to the Harvard men’s hockey team at the World’s Most Famous Arena. This time, however, the drubbing lasted only a period.

Three Quinnipiac goals over a span of 36 seconds in the opening frame left the No. 5/4 Crimson’s defense in shambles Saturday night, and a fourth tally at 12:43 gave the No. 2/1 Bobcats a commanding 4-0 edge heading into the first intermission. Yet with most of the 12,016 in attendance anticipating yet another rout at the Rivalry On Ice, Harvard retaliated, storming back to score four consecutive goals and force an extra frame.

With Saturday night's 5-4 overtime win, Quinnipiac has swept the regular season series with Harvard. By Matthew W DeShaw

But 2:55 into overtime, Quinnipiac (19-1-3, 10-0-2 ECAC) bookended its perfect start with a perfect finish. Skating onto a loose puck by the left circle, junior defenseman Derek Smith blasted a shot past freshman netminder Michael Lackey, powering the ECAC frontrunners to a 5-4 overtime victory at Madison Square Garden.

Smith’s slapper squashed the Crimson’s comeback bid after Harvard (8-3-3, 4-2-3) had finally finished climbing the four-goal mountain just over 10 minutes into the third period.

With his side down 4-3, freshman forward Ryan Donato delivered a feed from the left boards to an open Colin Blackwell in the middle of the slot. But the fifth-year senior wrung the left iron on his shot, keeping the Crimson on the comeback trail.

But before Blackwell’s shift came to an end, the senior received a second opportunity. After moving to the right circle, Blackwell regained possession of the puck and picked the top right corner with a rocket of a wrister to silence the predominantly Bobcat crowd.

“Down 4-0 [we knew] that we could go two different ways,” Blackwell said. “Either we can pack it in and call it a night, or four goals—chip away one at a time. And guys bought in, kind of realized those first 10-15 minutes were probably our worst of the season and [that] there’s still 40 minutes left to play.”

First it was junior center Alex Kerfoot, who received a feed from co-captain Jimmy Vesey atop the slot at 7:11 in the second period and picked the same corner on senior goaltender Michael Garteig, who entered the game with a 1.29 goals against average.

Then it was junior forward Tyler Moy, maneuvering all the way from the New York Rangers logo at center ice to the goalmouth, where he forced the netminder to bite on a backhand and swiftly moved to his right, diving to beat Garteig and light the lamp on the power play at 10:53.

Harvard celebrates after tying the game at four midway through the third period. By Matthew W DeShaw

And finally it was Donato, who fell down after fanning on an opportunity in the slot, but managed to corral the loose puck and force it past the ECAC’s top goaltender while lying on the ice at 17:43. The rookie later fed Blackwell in the third period to erase the deficit altogether.

Nonetheless, the opening frame proved to be Harvard’s downfall. Coming off a third period in which the Crimson surrendered four goals—three in a span of 129 seconds—to Boston University on Thursday, Harvard’s defensive struggles continued right out of the gate. However, Thursday night, the wheels only fell off. Saturday night, the wheels were nowhere to be found.

Breaking out on a 2-on-1 along the left wing with Bobcat captain Soren Jonzzon, defenseman Alex Miner-Barron opened the floodgates at 7:29, electing to hold the puck and fire away, beating Lackey high glove-side.

Playing in his first game since Nov. 13—a 4-1 loss at Quinnipiac—Lackey then watched the game slip away from him in the blink of an eye. Twenty seconds following the Bobcats’ first goal, Lackey fell to his back making a save against Tommy Schutt, allowing junior forward K.J. Tiefenwerth to tap in his side’s second goal of the night.

Then 13 seconds later, junior forward Sam Anas danced past defenseman Victor Newell by the right circle and slipped a shot through Lackey’s pads to up the lead to three. Senior center Travis St. Denis picked up an assist on the play and later put home Quinnipiac’s fourth of the period off a feed from Anas at 12:43.

Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91 took a timeout after the second Bobcat goal in an attempt to stop the bleeding, but Quinnipiac continued to force the Crimson into mistakes. Donato considered giving the rookie the hook in favor of sophomore Merrick Madsen, who had been unbeaten through nine games before allowing six goals to the Terriers on Thursday. But with his entire squad struggling alongside his netminder, Donato elected not to pull his starter.

“It was something we thought about after the first period,” Donato said. “I didn’t want to single [Lackey] out in a period where quite frankly, we didn’t show up in the first 10 minutes off the game.”

“I thought he battled back,” he added. “I thought he made some excellent saves to keep the game where it was to give us a chance to come back.”

Following the fourth Quinnipiac score, Lackey made 21 consecutive saves to keep the Bobcats off the scoreboard as Harvard climbed back.

“You’d think a goaltender would be rattled giving up three goals in 30 seconds, and they left him in there,” Smith said. “We were kind of surprised. Then we didn’t get a lot of traffic or shots in the second period, and that kind of gave him some confidence for the rest of the game.”

As soon as Derek Smith's shot found the back of Michael Lackey's net, the celebration was on for Quinnipiac. By Matthew W DeShaw

Lackey’s save streak came to an abrupt halt, however, when Smith lit the lamp midway through the overtime period to make the Crimson pay for its early defensive woes.

"Hopefully we'll see them again," Blackwell said.

—Staff writer Jake Meagher can be reached at jake.meagher@thecrimson.com.

Read The Crimson's game notebook here.