Boston College Tops Men's Hockey on Single Soft Goal

It wasn’t much of a goal, but it was enough.

Justin Dziama’s slap shot with 4:35 remaining in the first period was all Boston College would need against the men’s hockey team on Friday night at the Conte forum in Chestnut Hill, as the Eagles hung on to a 1-0 lead for their seventh win of the season.

With the sting of last Tuesday’s 8-4 blowout at the hands of Boston University still fresh, Harvard (3-4-1, 3-2-1 ECAC) looked to rebound against the defending national champion B.C. (7-4-1).

The contest was quite unlike the recent B.U. game, with an astounding lack of physical play or penalties. But the end result—a Harvard loss—was the same.

The Dziama medium range slap shot was blocked cleanly by sophomore goalie Will Crothers, who returned to the lineup after missing three games with the flu.

Crothers came slightly out of net to cut down Dziama’s shooting angle and got his glove on the puck to deflect the shot, but a random bounce sent the puck high into the air and landed it directly behind Crothers’ left skate.

Unsure of where the puck had gone, Crothers backed up towards the net and unknowingly pushed into the net the game’s only goal.

The unlikely score was the only blemish on an otherwise stellar return for Crothers, who recorded 23 saves, including some particularly impressive stops during B.C. break aways in the third period.

After the game, Crothers, who could take no joy in his impressive work between the pipes, was still haunted by the one that got behind him.

“I really hoped that [the 1-0 score] wouldn’t hold up,” Crothers said

Crothers may have been upset with the game’s results, but his coach, while disappointed in the loss, was pleased with Crothers’ efforts.

“He definitely kept us in the game,” said Harvard Coach Mark Mazzoleni.

The Dziama goal did hold up for the rest of the game, thanks to Eagles goalie Tim Kelleher who matched Crothers save for save. Kelleher also recorded 23 stops on the night, and stymied the little bit of offense that Harvard was able to direct at him.

Both teams seemed lethargic over the first two periods, with little offense or physical play out forth by either squad.

Only three penalties were called on the evening, and as two were offsetting a B.C. power play as the only special teams opportunity of the night. While the first two periods were a defensive struggle— in layman’s terms “boring”— the third period featured many odd-man rushes and break aways which both goalies were able to turn aside.

“I thought both teams had an equal number of scoring chances,” Mazzoleni said. “They were more aggressive and assertive on the puck. It’s a game that if you don’t have the puck, you can’t score a hell of a lot.”

Mazzoleni noticed problems with the offense even before Friday’s sputtering loss.

“We’re having a difficult time finishing,” Mazzoleni said. “We’re not scoring a lot of goals five-on-five. If you look at our team right now, Dominic Moore, [Tyler] Kolarik, [Tim] Pettit, and [Dennis] Packard don’t have a single five-on-five goal for us.

“We’re having a difficult time finishing. We had our chances. We’re not finding the net.”

While the team’s current offensive difficulties are troubling, Mazzoleni has to be pleased with at least two things displayed on Friday night.

First, a lack of Crimson penalties, which has been Harvard’s achilles heel thus far this season. Harvard entered the game averaging a .750 penalty kill ratio, and Mazzoleni cited penalties as an area where the team needed to improve.

Another area of encouragement was the play of Crothers, who looked impressive in net against a strong B.C. team in his first game back.

Still, the Crimson will need to figure out a way to reach the back of the net by next weekend when it faces ECAC rivals St. Lawrence on Friday night and Clarkson on Saturday.