Men's Hockey Falls to Northeastern 8-7 in Beanpot Thriller

BOSTON--The freefall has officially hit a tailspin, but what an exciting ride.

The Harvard men's hockey team lost its fourth consecutive game last night falling to Northeastern, 8-7, in the 49th Annual Beanpot Tournament Consolation game. The Crimson sorely needed some consoling at the Fleet Center coming off its worst defeat in 20 years, a 7-0 drubbing a Dartmouth on Friday, but the Huskies were in no mood to pass out sympathy cards, coming back from deficits of 4-2, 6-3 and 7-5. The 15 goals were the most ever scored in the consolation game.

"We're struggling right now," Harvard Coach Mark Mazzoleni said. "We've completely lost our edge defensively. We ran around and chased guys in the defensive zone."

Husky Senior Graig Mischler ended the sloppy shootout on a goal with 2:57 left in regulation time. Mischler knocked an off-balance pass by junior Chris Lynch with a Harvard defender draped all over him.

It appeared Harvard had put the game away when captain Steve Moore netted a shorthanded goal at 4:36 of the third period--his fifth point of the night--but Northeastern would simply not fold in an otherwise meaningless game between two struggling teams.

The Huskies trailed the whole game, but took advantage of a porous Harvard defense that would let it roam free in the slot unmarked and go fishing for pucks in front of senior goalie Oli Jonas at will. Aside from the dramatic final goal, almost all of Northeastern's offense came in discrete, two-goal clusters. The Huskies scored a pair 30 seconds apart in the first, 47 seconds apart in the second and the score went from 7-5 to 7-7 on a duet separated by just 27 ticks in the third, at 5:25 and 5:53.

Sophomore winger Mike Ryan put the puck in an open net to make the game 7-6 and Leon Hayward brought what few fans had trekked to the Fleet Center for the opening game to their feet by trickling a rebound past a sprawled Jonas from the low slot to even the game.

"Once we started playing the body, it really opened the ice for us," said Mischler, who had a goal and three assists on the night for the Huskies. "It's important to comeback and shows we can get into a gun fight."

The resiliency of the Huskies really had emerged midway through the second period when it sliced a 6-3 deficit to 6-5 on goals by Jim Fahey and Brian Cummings--after already killing off a five minute major penalty. After that point, Northeastern really began to swarm Jonas, who after a magnificent first half of the season has looked shaky the past week.

On Fahey's goal, at 17:12 of the second, he came way too far out to challenge the shot on a two-on-one and Mischler slid an easy pass to him high at left face-off circle for the open net blast.

Jonas made 28 saves on 36 shots while goalie Jason Braun stopped 9 of 13 in the first period for Northeastern before being replaced by the usual Husky starter, Mike Gilhooly to open the second, who turned aside.

"We got pounded around the net," Mazzoleni said. "I don't even think Jonas was that bad, but he was all alone at times."

Before the defensive breakdowns started to avalanche in the second and third periods, it appeared that Harvard had the passion and skating legs that were sorely missing in its previous three contests.

Even more encouraging was the four goal blitz was driven by the passing of Steve Moore, but finished by the most unlikeliest of goal scorers, including freshmen Abe Kinkopf and Blair Barlow and junior winger Jared Cantanucci. All three of them scored their first of the season, with Kinkopf and Barlow netting the first of their college careers.

Barlow's goal gave Harvard back the lead after Northeastern had tied it midway through the second. He tucked a shot from the right point just inside the far post for the Crimson's first power play goal of the night at 15:23.

Freshman Tim Petit scored at 9:36 of the first period to give Harvard a 2-0 lead before Brian Sullivan and Cummings evened it up at 12:10 and 12:57, respectively. Assistant captains Chris Bala and Pete Capouch rounded out the scoring for Harvard at :37 and 17:06 of the second period, respectively. Bala's goal came on a nice feed from Steve Moore on the power play.

The loss further exposed all the holes in the Harvard team defensively and certainly does not bode well for a critical home series against Clarkson and St. Lawrence this weekend. The Crimson received some further bad news when Petit left the game in the second period with a broken jaw. It is unclear how much time he will miss with that injury.

Since Harvard last won the Beanpot in 1993, it has just three wins in the tournament.

"I guarantee you I will sit in the winner's circle one day, but it takes time to build up a program," Mazzoleni said. "That's why they gave me a five year deal. [Athletic Director] Billy Cleary '56 knows where we are at right now.

Sophomore winger Brett Nowak did not dress last night because of an injury and freshman defenseman Dave McCulloch was benched after a viscous cross-check in the waning moments of the Darmouth loss.