M. Hockey Bounced From NCAA Tournament

AMHERST, Mass.—New Hampshire forward Daniel Winnik’s redirection with 4:54 left to play in overtime Saturday evening at the Mullins Center snapped a 2-2 tie and pushed the Wildcats past Harvard and into the second round of the NCAA tournament, denying the Crimson’s bid to move beyond the regional semifinals for the first time since 1994.

UNH will next face Denver—which outlasted Bemidji State 4-3 Saturday afternoon—with the right to advance to the Frozen Four at stake. Harvard, meanwhile, is left only to contemplate yet another playoff berth come to naught, its fourth in as many seasons.

“It seemed to be the question of the week earlier, before this game, about our last three years,” Crimson captain Noah Welch said of the lead up to Harvard’s 3-2 season-ending loss. “As far as tonight goes, we left it out there. I’m upset because my college career is over, not because we lost this game. Because when you go out and you know you left everything on the ice and you know that your team did, you’re a proud captain.”

Again the start of the third period proved to signal the Crimson’s undoing, though its ultimate downfall was not nearly so grand as in recent years past. The Wildcats mounted no game-breaking three-goal flurry. Harvard did not wither in the face of some four-tally comeback for the ages. But just three minutes into the final regulation frame, UNH did draw level, erasing the Crimson’s narrow one-goal lead and seizing whatever momentum Harvard had mustered in the 40-plus minutes prior to the equalizer.

With five seconds remaining on sophomore Dylan Reese’s hooking minor and the Wildcats swarming, forward Sean Collins maneuvered his way into the slot from the right faceoff circle and whipped a shot at Crimson netminder Dov Grumet-Morris, who recorded the initial save, then leaned forward to clear the puck off to the side as he had successfully done only moments earlier. But Preston Callander’s stick reached the rebound first, and the UNH captain managed to get just enough on his second-chance effort to poke it past Grumet-Morris to tie the score at two 3:44 into the third.

“They’re a very dangerous team,” Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91 said. “And every time you put them on the power play you’re playing Russian roulette.”

Though the Crimson did not want for quality chances the rest of the way and in fact outshot the Wildcats 21-19 following the second intermission, UNH’s near-constant fire from in close repeatedly stretched Harvard to the limit defensively.

“Once you get it going, it’s difficult [to be stopped],” Wildcats coach Dick Umile said. “We kept it down there and kept them moving. I don’t think it had anything to do with us being in better condition than them. It was just good composure with the puck.”

The catalyst was more often than not Collins, already the focus of the UNH’s offense with a goal and an assist. With the stanza passing its midway point, the winger carried an outlet pass from the Wildcats’ zone through neutral ice and into the Crimson end by himself, where, had he not fallen down of his own accord, a 1-on-0 surely would have been his. He would nearly find redemption twice in quick succession before all was said and done, though.

With overtime only 90 seconds away, Harvard forward Brendan Bernakevitch centered the puck from along the boards to assistant captain Tom Cavanagh in the slot. His one-timer whizzed just wide of the target, then kicked to UNH, which rapidly pushed play back down to the other end of the ice. Collins’ initial offering from the left circle caught Grumet-Morris in the chest, allowing the Wildcats to control the rebound and cycle possession back to the right point for a slapshot. Perched at the top of the crease, Collins redeflected the errant attempt on net, batting it off the inside of the left post but not in, leaving the two sides deadlocked entering sudden-death play.

After sophomores Ryan Maki and Kevin Du were rebuffed in turn to open the frame, Collins again provided the Wildcats with an opening fewer than two minutes in, crossing into the Harvard zone 2-on-1, then dumping the puck cross-ice to winger Brett Hemingway at the right faceoff circle. All by himself, Hemingway snapped his shot off-target, then lost his footing and crashed into the boards to end the threat.

Five minutes later, Cavanagh manufactured the Crimson’s last best chance, slashing across the UNH blue line and between a pair of defenders, then twice putting the puck around a would-be pickpocket to free himself between the circles for a wristshot. But the well-earned effort soared high, hurtling over the crossbar and off the glass as play continued on seven minutes into the frame.

Collins in turn earned his final opportunity of the contest four minutes later, intercepting a sloppy Harvard pass in the neutral zone, then breaking in on Grumet-Morris all by himself down the lefthand side of the ice. But as he approached, he briefly bobbled the puck, allowing the Crimson backstop to reach out with his stick to break up the play before a shot ever materialized.

“I'm oh-for-the-century on breakaways, so it wasn't that frustrating for me,” Collins said. “We just knew it was gonna come…I think they got a little too tired. All we had to do was just keep throwing pucks at the net, especially in overtime.”

And at 15:06, Harvard, caught in transition, wouldn’t enjoy the good fortune that had earlier seen Collins’ two 1-on-0s collapse under their own weight. Right wing Justin Aikins received linemate Jacob Micflikier’s pass as he streaked along the righthand boards, then pulled up inside the blue line to guide a feed of his own towards the left post. The puck met Winnik perfectly in stride, and before Grumet-Morris could react, the puck had slipped between his legs and in, dashing Harvard’s championship hopes.

“Aikins gave me a great pass just in front of Morris,” Winnik said. “And I just happened to put it through his five-hole.”

As was the case a year ago, Harvard had—prior to the third period—dictated largely dictated the pace of play throughout, limiting the Wildcats’ forwards primarily to the perimeter and smothering those few rebounds that happened to slip away from Grumet-Morris while converting its own grade-A chances at the other end.

Skating 4-on-4 midway through the opening period, Du threaded a leading pass to Maki through the neutral zone that allowed him to slip behind two UNH defenders and skate in on Wildcats netminder Kevin Regan. As he was hauled down from behind, Maki wound up for a booming wrist shot, which he managed to fling into the top left corner of the net just before crashing to the ice at 9:26, staking the Crimson to a 1-0 lead.

It would take the better part of 20 minutes for UNH to respond thanks to Harvard’s efficient even-strength defense. With Welch in the penalty box for interference—the Crimson was whistled for eight minors, which resulted in seven Wildcats power plays and two man-advantage goals—UNH defenseman Tyson Teplitsky touched a cross-slot feed to his left and Collins, who one-timed the pass inside the left post to knot the score at one at 7:35 of the middle frame.

But freshman Alex Meintel wasted no time answering back for the Crimson, poking home the go-ahead tally just eight seconds later, one tick short of an NCAA tournament record. Though Harvard lost the faceoff following Collins’ score, rookie Tyler Magura quickly regained possession for the Crimson and tested Regan from the point. Though he recorded the initial save, Regan left the rebound on the doorstep for Meintel, who flipped his no-angle second effort across the crease and into the top corner of the cage on the far side to restore Harvard’s one-goal lead.

“Just to come into this game on the big rink and try to utilize my speed was a lot of fun,” said Meintel of his first collegiate goal and 10th career start. “Just to get the opportunity to play—and fortunately I got a good break there to put one in.”

The tally immediately derailed UNH’s comeback push and allowed the Crimson to reestablish its preferred tempo after losing control of play on the Wildcats’ previous 5-on-4. And though Harvard could not further add to the lead, the Crimson certainly seemed to be solidifying its advantage in the way of momentum, repeatedly frustrating the UNH offense with solid goaltending from Grumet-Morris—who recorded 43 saves on the evening to Regan’s 39—and a multitude of textbook blocked shots that thwarted otherwise golden opportunities, most notably the Wildcats’ 1:08 5-on-3 at the close of the second period, which netted a grand total of zero shots on target.

But whatever edge the Crimson had held at the end of the second was gone with the expiration of a Harvard power play 90 seconds into the third. Callander knotted the score two minutes later, and history, as it so often seems to do to the Crimson in the NCAA tournament—though with a slight variation on theme—repeated itself once more.

“Each year, you’ve got a chance to write a new script,” Donato. “Obviously we’d like to write a little bit more of a happy ending for ourselves. But you know what? These guys have played in four consecutive NCAA tournaments. They’ve played in four consecutive ECAC championships…So I don’t think these guys have to hang their [heads] at all.”

—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.