MIRROR MELTDOWNS: Sure Upset Erased By Stunning Rally

ALBANY, N.Y.—The sting of this one won’t go away for awhile. Not a chance.

How could everything go so perfectly right, then so terribly wrong, so quickly? If you’re a Red Sox fan, the best way to describe this was Game 7 On Ice.

Early in the third period, the Harvard men’s hockey team was cruising. It had a three-goal lead. It had scored a season-high three power-play goals. Its goaltender was playing the game of his life.

Then it fell apart in a slow, agonizing death. Maine cut it to two, then one, then tied it. Then came the guillotine. With 4:10 left, Greg Moore beat Dov Grumet-Morris from atop the left circle for a 5-4 Black Bears win that tied the largest comeback in an NCAA Regional game.

The combined shots on goal (46 for Maine, 40 for Harvard) set a record for an NCAA Regional game. This was a great, classic college ice hockey game by any measure.

It also ranks among the most heartbreaking defeats in Harvard hockey history.

“I don’t think anything you say puts the right words to the feelings we have right now,” said captain Kenny Smith, one of six seniors in the lineup—nine in all—who watched their collegiate careers melt in a 20-minute nightmare.

The Crimson received goals from Dylan Reese, Brendan Bernakevitch, Dennis Packard and Ryan Maki but saw its seven-game win streak—its longest in 11 seasons—snapped to finish the year 18-15-3.

At least everyone can take solace in this: There is no one deserving of the damning finger-point. There is no goat. There is no Grady.

“It just kind of happened,” Grumet-Morris said.

Harvard had leads of 3-0 (early in the second) and 4-1 (as late as 3:54 of the third). At one point, the Crimson was 3-4 on the power play and, quite simply, dominating the game.

But the top-ranked Black Bears surged in the third, like you figured a team that has made six straight NCAA tournaments would. They outshot Harvard, 14-7. They hustled. They generated rushes without giving up many in return. They got good goaltending.

And, of course, they got a little lucky, too.

“If you come back from a 4-1 deficit, you’ve got to get some lucky bounces,” admitted Maine senior Colin Shields.

All of this doesn’t make the loss easier to take. The Crimson had, in the words of Black Bears coach Tim Whitehead, “thoroughly outplayed” the best team in the land. Maine goaltender Jimmy Howard—he of the nation-leading 1.05 goals-against average and .958 save percentage entering the game—was on the bench to start the third period, having tied a season-high four goals allowed.

“We executed our game plan to a ‘T’ for two periods,” said Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni.

That was before the Black Bears staged an offensive tour de force in the third.

About four minutes into the period, Jon Jankus found Mike Hamilton open in the slot. One quick wrister later, it was 4-2.

Less than two minutes later, and with Tyler Kolarik already off for obstruction-holding, Rob Fried was whistled for slashing, giving the Black Bears 35 seconds on the 5-on-3.

Just after Kolarik rejoined the play, Prestin Ryan picked up a rebound in the slot and made it 4-3.

Momentum had shifted completely. And permanently.

“When it was 4-2, it was fine,” Mazzoleni said. “When it was 4-3, they really started to come at us...and we didn’t have an answer.”

Grumet-Morris admitted he saw Ryan’s shot, but said he was screened on the tying and winning goals.

The first came from Michel Léveillé, with 7:13 left in the third. His point shot deflected off at least two skates and beat Grumet-Morris low to his left side.

Heartbreak came three minutes later. Kolarik had the chance to play a loose puck along the boards, but unknowingly turned the wrong way. That allowed Moore to dig it from the dasher and fire a slapper that eluded Grumet-Morris—again, low to his left side.

Bedlam in the Black Bear section. Dead, foreboding silence for the Crimson contingent.

The change in mood wouldn’t have been so striking if it hadn’t have been so strong the other way mere minutes before. Harvard was playing its best hockey of the season. Everyone was contributing.

How about Reese? The freshman from Pittsburgh hadn’t scored a goal all season. But there he was, sending a just-barely-good-enough snap shot over the purportedly error-free glove of Howard late in the first.

Then, with only 16.5 seconds left in the first, Bernakevitch followed Packard’s shot in front for his 11th goal of the season and team-leading 11th postseason point.

It was the first even-strength goal scored against Howard since Dec. 5.

On the power play, Packard went in 1-on-1 along the left wing and punched across his 11th of the year for a 3-0 lead 1:09 into the second.

Todd Jackson cut it to 3-1 about two minutes later, but a second-effort goal by Maki restored the Crimson’s three goal lead at 16:47 of the period.

Everything, it seemed, was going Harvard’s way. That was before the Third Period From Hell.

Instead of a loud national statement, the Crimson was left with a near-silent dressing room and very quiet bus ride home.

Meanwhile, Maine went on to defeat Wisconsin in overtime, 2-1, and claim the Frozen Four bid that was seemingly destined to be Harvard’s.

“Tough way to go,” Smith lamented.

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