M. Hockey Sets Up Rematch With Cornell For ECAC Title

ALBANY, N.Y.—After the Harvard men’s hockey team lost to Cornell, 4-3, in the teams’ final regular-season meeting, players in both locker rooms said they expected to see one another again this year.

They were right.

The Crimson (22-8-2) beat Dartmouth (19-13-1), 5-3, and the Big Red shut out Brown, 2-0, in Friday night’s semifinal round before 6,936 at Pepsi Arena, setting up a rematch between the archrivals for the ECAC championship at 7 p.m. Saturday night, one year and six days after Harvard’s epic, double-overtime victory over the Big Red in last season’s title game.

“I was hearing it all week, and I’m sure [Cornell coach Mike Schafer] was hit with the same thing,” Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni said. “They wanted to see Harvard-Cornell.”

They almost didn’t get that chance.

The Crimson took a 2-0 lead in the first period and a 4-1 lead in the second, a margin that lasted well into the third.

But the Big Green almost scared Harvard straight into the consolation round. ECAC Rookie of the Year Hugh Jessiman cut the Crimson lead to 4-2 with 6:34 left in the game, coming from behind the net to tuck in the rebound of a Lee Stempniak shot.

Less than three minutes later, Dartmouth senior Mike Murray gained possession in his defensive zone and broke free when Crimson defenseman David McCulloch slipped at the blue line. Murray had a clear path to Harvard sophomore goaltender Dov Grumet-Morris before Crimson junior defensemen Kenny Smith hauled him down in front—penalty shot.

Grumet-Morris had faced two others in his Harvard career. One came against Brown in last year’s first-round series—one of just five penalty shots in ECAC tournament history before Friday night—and the other came Jan. 4 against Union. Both were successful. So was this one.

Murray, a right-handed shot, brought the puck in on his right before deking to his backhand and barely slipping it under Grumet-Morris’ right leg pad.

“I came out to challenge, and then he got to my blocker side and underneath me,” said Grumet-Morris, who finished with 31 saves. “Give him credit. He got the puck on net on a penalty shot, which is what you have to do. Luckily, our team played well enough to pick me up after that, and that’s the most important thing.”

Though it had tugged all of the game’s momentum away from Harvard, the Big Green couldn’t get any more grade-A chances, and sophomore wing Rob Flynn put the game on ice with an empty-netter in the closing seconds.

“I thought in the third period we may have sat on the lead too much. Then they got the big goal and it was a ball game—everybody knew that,” said Mazzoleni, whose team’s current seven-game unbeaten streak (6-0-1) is its longest since the 1993-94 season. “I told our guys, ‘That’s a lesson learned.’ We have to have a better effort [Saturday] night, and we will.”

Mazzoleni, though, had to be pleased with what he saw during the first two periods.

Harvard took a 1-0 lead at 4:23 of the first, thanks to an unlikely bounce and an equally unlikely goal-scorer. With the Crimson’s fourth line forechecking hard, senior wing Aaron Kim gained possession in the right corner and zipped a pass through the slot. It took a hard carom off the unpredictable Pepsi Arena boards and made its way out to McCulloch at the point.

McCulloch, who had not scored since last season’s NCAA Regional game, slapped it past a stunned Nick Boucher.

“It’s a challenge to play goalie in this rink,” Mazzoleni said. “The ice is rough, so now you want to get out of the net and play the puck.”

Freshman wing Charlie Johnson put the Crimson ahead 2-0 six and a half minutes later, as he one-timed his fourth goal of the season off a nice feed down low by captain Dominic Moore.

The Big Green, though, cut the Harvard lead in half 1:37 into the second, as Kent Gillings put a wrister five-hole on Grumet-Morris.

“The only goal I think you could fault [Grumet-Morris] for was that first one,” Mazzoleni said.

But 17 seconds later, Dartmouth defenseman Brian Van Abel went in for obstruction-interference, and it took Harvard junior Tim Pettit less than a minute on the power play to one-time his 17th goal of the season past Boucher.

The Crimson took a 4-1 lead at 7:59 of the second on a tremendous individual effort by sophomore wing Brendan Bernakevitch, who was playing in just his third game since the Beanpot because of a hip injury.

Bernakevitch stormed down the left wing in transition, all the way to the bottom of the faceoff circle, before making an abrupt stop. Unmolested by Dartmouth defensemen Pete Summerfelt and Trevor Byrne, Bernakevitch looped back toward the boards and walked back to where he started before beating Boucher top shelf.

It was Bernakevitch’s first goal in over a month, and it chased Boucher, who was replaced by sophomore Dan Yacey.

At that point, the game appeared to be a rout. It ended up being anything but.

With the win, Harvard virtually assured itself a spot in the NCAA tournament. The Crimson moved up to No. 12 in the USCHO.com PairWise Rankings, boosted by losses by Ohio State and Northern Michigan in the CCHA tournament and Minnesota State-Mankato and Minnesota-Duluth in the WCHA.

Even then, Mazzoleni said his team has plenty to play for Saturday night.

“I guarantee you that we’ll play hard,” he said. “We’re going to have to bring our ‘A’ game, and we’re capable of bringing our ‘A’ game.”

—Staff writer Jon Paul Morosi can be reached at morosi@fas.harvard.edu.