M. Hockey Plays to Disappointing Tie With Windsor

Entering Saturday night, neither the Harvard men’s hockey team nor the University of Windsor had won a game. For the Crimson, this exhibition matchup was the first of the season. For the Lancers, the contest came on the heels of seven straight exhibition losses. And after 65 minutes of play on the Bright Hockey Center ice, both teams were still without a win.

For Windsor, the 2-2 tie was an accomplishment in-of itself—Princeton had just drubbed the Lancers 9-2 the night before. But for Harvard, which expected to dominate the game easily, the tie came as something of a disappointment.

The Crimson outshot Windsor 15-1 in the first frame, but the Lancers’ goaltender, Reese Kalleitner, stood tall between the pipes. He had played just 20 minutes against the Tigers, allowing two goals on nine shots.

Harvard senior Rob Flynn broke through 9:40 into the second period, and blueliner Dylan Reese struck again less than two minutes later. The sophomore, hovering midway between the points, picked up the puck as it bounced from the boards and fired a straight shot past Kalleitner.

“I thought the first half of the game, we really could have separated ourselves, and you know, [Windsor] did a good job,” said Crimson coach Ted Donato ’91. “They played smartly. They hung around.”

The Lancers notched their first goal 17:28 into the second frame, when Kyle Voy went top-shelf on Harvard’s John Daigneau. They then knotted the score at two just 0:22 into the final period, as Crimson junior Andrew Lederman sat in the sin bin for obstruction-hooking, a penalty carried over from the previous frame.

Despite the Crimson’s fair share of open looks and cross-crease passes, the teams ended regulation knotted at two, and five more minutes of overtime play saw no goals.

“It wasn’t a good turnout for us, obviously,” assistant captain Tom Cavanagh said. “We wanted much more than a tie tonight, and I thought that with the shots we had, and, I thought, the territorial advantage we had, we should have come out with a win.”

BETWEEN THE PIPES

After senior netminder Dov Grumet-Morris’s stellar showing last year, nobody expects a goaltending controversy this season. Taking advantage of the game’s exhibition status, though, Donato gave all three of his goalies time on Saturday night.

Grumet-Morris lasted just a hair under 30 minutes of his start and earned perfect numbers—one save for one opportunity.

Donato substituted in Daigneau with Harvard up 1-0, and the junior amassed five saves. However, he let in two goals, the latter coming on a Crimson penalty kill.

Sophomore transfer Justin Tobe saw almost 17 minutes before Harvard pulled him with four seconds remaining. Though he never saw an official shot, Tobe looked confident in the crease and “handled the puck very well,” according to Donato.

NEW FACES

The Crimson graduated nine seniors last spring, so for this fall’s batch of freshmen—nine of them, to be exact—there will be little adjustment time.

Saturday night proved a promising start for several of them. Highly touted Jon Pelle skated on the second line, centered by the explosive senior Brendan Bernakevitch, and saw some time on the power play.

Rookies David McDonald and Alex Meintel notched the assists on Reese’s goal, and Meintel took four shots—the only Crimson skaters with more on the night were captain Noah Welch, Cavanagh and Bernakevitch.

And Tyler Magura, who assisted Flynn’s tally, showed little fear, laying out his body on several plays and employing an aggressive offensive game.

“I thought they played very well,” Donato said. “It’s the first game for those guys, so it’s another level and another pace, but I thought they handled it very well for their first time out.”

FIRE AWAY

Harvard took 47 shots on Saturday night—Windsor took eight. But both teams ended up with two goals.

“Even when you [take] a lot of shots,” Cavanagh said, “you’ve got to find a way to put them in, and we didn’t tonight.”

The Crimson outshot the Lancers 15-1, 13-4 and 16-3 in the three regulation periods. Several of Kalleitner’s saves bordered on the spectacular, including one where momentum carried his body in one direction but he managed a glove save in the other.

Harvard also held the overtime shots-on-goal advantage—3-0—but the attempts proved too little, too late. The final seconds, in which the Crimson had a power play and pulled Tobe, produced a scramble around the net. The buzzer sounded as Pelle stabbed towards the Lancers goal, the puck just out of reach.

ON THE MEND

Assistant captain Ryan Lannon missed some practice last week with an injury, as did sophomores Kevin Du and Steve Mandes. Lannon played against Windsor, but neither Mandes, out with a sprained ankle, nor Du, sidelined with a stress fracture, dressed for the contest. Both, however, expect to be ready for next Friday’s matchup against Brown in Providence.

—Staff writer Rebecca A. Seesel can be reached at seesel@fas.harvard.edu.