M. Hockey Dominates Colgate-Part III

Colgate’s band did not arrive at Bright Hockey Center until the first period had ended. By the time it showed up, the game was already over.

Any fears that the Harvard men’s hockey team would overlook the Red Raiders Friday night with a Saturday night showdown with No. 2 Cornell on the horizon were erased by four first-period goals, as the Crimson rode captain Dominic Moore’s second career hat trick to a 7-0 trouncing of the Red Raiders.

It was Harvard’s first shutout of the season and the second of sophomore goaltender Dov Grumet-Morris’ career. Grumet-Morris made 37 saves on the night.

It was also a career night for Moore, who notched the Crimson’s first hat trick since he last accomplished the feat against RPI in Jan., 2001.

Moore also added two assists for a career-high five points and passed his brother Steve Moore ’01 to move into 18th place on the all-time Harvard scoring list.

“Since we made a line change and put Dominic with [freshman] Charlie Johnson and [junior] Kenny Turano last week, we’ve given him a lot more speed on his line,” said Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni. “It’s really helped, and it’s balanced our lines, too.”

Moore’s final goal was also Harvard’s prettiest. Skating ahead of Moore on a shorthanded rush, junior Dennis Packard passed up an open shot, instead leaving the puck for Moore, who backhanded it into the far corner of the net for the final margin.

“That was a tremendously unselfish play by Dennis,” Moore said. “He had a clear shot himself, but to dish it back to me instead, that showed a lot.”

Friday’s win completes a three-game Harvard season sweep of Colgate by a combined score of 22-2. Nearly a quarter of the Crimson’s goals this season have come against the Red Raiders.

The latest blowout was the most surprising of the three. Colgate entered the game riding the hot play of goaltender Steve Silverthorn, who earned ECAC Goalie of the Week honors the previous two weeks and who had almost singlehandedly beaten Cornell the previous Friday.

But Harvard wasted little time bringing Silverthorn back to reality, knocking him out of the game with four first-period goals. Silverthorn seemed to be rattled by a cheap first goal, which bounced in off a sliding Tim Pettit. The Crimson took a little longer to chase backup David Cann, but he was ultimately pulled for freshman walk-on Scott Annan, who saw his first-ever action. Annan had the best success of any Red Raider goalie, stopping the only shot he faced.

Most of the Harvard’s damage was done on by its power-play unit, which finally found its rhythm after having tallied just one goal since the exam break. The Crimson finished 4-for-9 with the man advantage, including goals on three of its first five chances.

“There was a lot of smart play that was made on the power play tonight,” Moore said. “Sometimes we get caught up in just shooting on every opening. Tonight we waited, we were patient, guys were unselfish and eventually we found a weakness and capitalized on it.”

—Staff writer Elijah M. Alper can be reached at alper@fas.harvard.edu.