Alex Biega ’10 scored the winning goal and earned the first star of the game in his National Hockey League debut on Monday night.

The 26-year-old defenseman for the Vancouver Canucks became the 26th Harvard hockey alum to play in the NHL after learning hours before the Canucks’ home contest with the Minnesota Wild that he would make his first career start. Biega, who had played 313 games with three different teams in the American Hockey League following his graduation in 2010, made the most of the opportunity.

With less than nine minutes left in regulation and the Canucks leading, 2-1, Biega collected a stray centering feed from all-star teammate Henrik Sedin off the right boards and beat Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk through a screen with a blistering slap-shot.

Vancouver would go on to win, 3-2, and Biega’s even strength marker turned out to be the difference.

At Harvard, Biega served as the Crimson’s 116th captain in his senior season. The Montreal native led all Crimson defensemen in scoring in his sophomore year and was named to the ECAC All-Tournament team in 2008. Harvard honored Biega as the team’s most valuable player after each of his last two collegiate seasons.

Three other former Harvard players are currently playing for NHL teams: Alex Killorn ’12 (Tampa Bay Lightning), Dominic Moore ’03 (New York Rangers), and Craig Adams ’99 (Pittsburgh Penguins).

—Staff writer Michael D. Ledecky can be reached at michael.ledecky@thecrimson.com

A late jumper by junior co-captain Siyani Chambers catapulted the Harvard men’s basketball team (16-5, 6-1 Ivy) to its fifth straight win Friday. The Crimson goes for its 20th win in its last 22 games at home Saturday against the Cornell Big Red. Below, The Back Page takes a look at the three main things to keep your eye on as Harvard looks to complete its first home sweep of the year. 

Balance, Balance, Balance: Harvard coach Tommy Amaker’s favorite phrase, his team’s “bench and balance,” came up big for the Crimson against Columbia. Senior Jonah Travis had 12 points off of the bench, playing most of the second half and hitting a dagger jumper late in the game. Amaker has moved to a seven-man rotation almost exclusively since the beginning of conference play, sticking nonconference rotation players like freshman Andre Chatfield and junior Evan Cummins on the bench for the entire 40 minutes, making Travis’ efforts even more important.

(Continued)

With three losses last week, the Harvard men’s ice hockey team is officially on the bubble.

After dropping games to No. 15/- Yale and Brown, the No. 14/13 Crimson sits 16th in the PairWise rankings, an objective metric that predicts selection to the 16-team NCAA tournament. The weekend sweep followed a 3-2 double-overtime defeat against No. 3/2 Boston University in the first round of the Beanpot on Tuesday.

Conference rival No. 13/14 Quinnipiac now leads Harvard in the PairWise at 13th, while St. Lawrence and Yale lurk just behind at 17th and 18th, respectively.

Harvard also dropped from No. 6 to No. 14 in the USCHO.com poll and from No. 6 to No. 13 in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll.  The team is 2-7-0 in 2015 after finishing the 2014 half of its season 10-1-2.

Coach Ted Donato ’91 and his team will look to halt their season-worst losing streak this weekend, when they host Colgate (T-21, PairWise) on Friday and Cornell (T-27) on Saturday.

No. 1/1 Minnesota State heads the PairWise rankings, followed by No. 2/3 North Dakota and BU. 

(Continued)

Over the past week, senior wing Wesley Saunders helped the Harvard men’s basketball team earn a share of first place in the Ivy League standings, following two conference victories on the road against Brown and Yale. Saunders netted a career-high 33 points in the overtime triumph in Providence and added another 16 versus the Bulldogs, securing his spot as Athlete of the Week.

While the senior dominated on the court, several other Crimson athletes contributed particularly noteworthy performances this week:

Nikki Okwelogu, Women’s Track and Field

At the team’s annual Crimson Elite Meet this past weekend, Harvard sophomore Nikki Okwelogu was the best shot putter in the building. Period. Not only did Okwelogu shatter the Ivy League women’s shot put record with a distance of 16.39 meters on her longest throw, but she also out-tossed any of the male competitors at this weekend’s meet. The Fresno, Calif. native just edged out the men’s champion, senior Ethan Knight of Boston University, whose best throw of the day measured 16.37 meters.

(Continued)

Hockey East officials announced on Sunday that the first round games of the 63rd Annual Beanpot will be played on Tuesday due to the winter storm forecasted for the Boston area Sunday night into Monday.

The No. 4/4 Harvard men’s hockey team will open the tournament at 5 p.m. at TD Garden against No. 2/2 Boston University. Northeastern and No. 14/15 Boston College will play at 8 p.m. The games were originally scheduled for the same times on Monday.

The postponement could help Harvard, which is trying to get key players back from injury. In addition to star defenseman Patrick McNally, who is out for the rest of the regular season, Harvard was without the services of sophomore forwards Alex Kerfoot, Sean Malone, and Luke Esposito and other key players during Friday’s home game against Union.

Kerfoot and Malone are back on the ice but skating non-contact, according to Assistant Director of Athletics Communications Brock Malone on Sunday. Kerfoot has been out since Nov. 29, while Malone has not played since Dec. 30. The two NHL draft picks have yet to play together in a game this season.