Men's Hockey Breaks NCAA Record with Tie Against Brown

PROVIDENCE—The Harvard men’s hockey team broke an NCAA record on Friday night against Brown.

Not for wins, or for losses, or for most goals scored. No, the Crimson now has reserved its spot in the record books for the most neutral record of them all: most ties in a single season.

Harvard became the first team in NCAA history to record 11 ties in one campaign, knotting the Bears, 3-3, at Meehan Auditorium.

After initially opening up a 2-0 lead, the Crimson (8-7-11, 6-4-9 ECAC) held a 3-2 advantage for much of the third period. But a Brown (8-14-4, 5-12-3 ECAC) score with just 1:46 left on the clock forced the game into overtime, where neither team could break the deadlock.

“There are good ties and bad ties. This one…we certainly don’t have a good taste in our mouths,” Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91 said. “It’s a point on the road. It beats losing, but that’s about the only positive that I feel right now.”

The tie extends Harvard’s unbeaten streak in league play to eight games.

After failing to score in the first frame, Brown scored three times in the final 40 minutes, thanks to six Crimson penalties in that span.

“[The] power plays really put them back in the game [and] changed momentum of the game,” Donato said. “It hurts our ability to get more guys on the ice…and therefore hurt our ability to be more dangerous in the third period.”

On the Crimson attack, senior forward Alex Killorn led the way, tallying a team-high three points, including his 19th and 20th goals of the season.

“He was unbelievable,” sophomore goaltender Raphael Girard said. “He’s got a great shot, [and] he used it tonight. He’s a guy that can definitely change momentum in a game.”

Killorn’s first score was also his ninth power-play goal of the year. It snapped the Crimson’s two-game streak without a goal on the man advantage, Harvard’s longest drought of the season.

Junior forward Alex Fallstrom also tallied a goal and an assist in the draw.

The matchup against the Bears also marked the third straight contest in which the Crimson had a different starting goaltender than in the previous contest.

After rookie netminder Steve Michalek played against Northeastern on Monday night, Girard took over on Friday. Girard saved 32 of the 35 shots on the night.

Following a fast-paced opening to the first period, Brown senior Jarred Smith was whistled for a hooking call. And it didn’t take long for the Crimson, owner of the nation’s top power play, to take advantage.

A little under nine minutes in, junior defenseman Danny Biega took a shot from the right point which Bears goaltender Michael Clemente deflected right to Killorn in the slot. The senior pumped it past the Bears netminder just eight seconds after the start of the power play, giving the visitors the 1-0 lead.

But Killorn’s first-period scoring wasn’t finished just yet.

Exactly eight minutes later, with 3:14 remaining in the period, the senior struck again, scoring from the point for his 20th goal of the season.

Though Harvard held the two-goal advantage at the end of the first 20 minutes, the Bears had plenty of chances to score, including a three-on-two fastbreak midway through the period that nearly tied the game at one apiece. But Brown, which notched 12 shots to Harvard’s six, couldn’t get on the board in the first frame.

That quickly changed in the second, as Brown halved the deficit under two minutes in.  Standing in the slot, Crimson defenseman Danny Fick couldn’t clear the puck, and Smith made the sophomore pay, beating Girard to make it a one-goal game.

The Crimson struck next 11 minutes later. After taking the puck from Biega, Killorn skated around and lost the puck. But Fallstrom found it in the slot, and while falling, lofted it over the left shoulder of Clemente to help Harvard recapture the two-goal lead.

“It was obviously a big goal. We thought it was going to be the difference maker in the game,” Killorn said.

The Bears managed one more in the second period, but the Crimson held the tenuous 3-2 lead through the end of the second period and for most of the third.

But with just 1:46 left on the clock, Brown tied it up. With a scrum in front of the net, the puck squirted past Girard, forcing the game into a five-minute overtime period. Bears freshman forward Massimo Lamacchia was credited with the score.

“I played it badly, and I think I lost track of it,” Girard said. “I don’t even know how it went in.”

Harvard outshot Brown, 4-1, in the overtime period, but the opportunities proved fruitless as the Crimson failed to find the back of the net.

The scoreless extra time gave the Crimson its NCAA-record 11th tie, a feat which elicited mixed reactions from the team.

“I think you could look at it two ways,” Killorn said. “A lot of those games we came back, and we showed a lot of resiliency, but...a few of these games we’ve just given away. You don’t know how to feel about it. It’s a record.... But it’s a double-edged sword.”

—Staff writer Robert S. Samuels can be reached at robertsamuels@college.harvard.edu.