Crimson Comes Close, But Falls Short

It takes three periods to win a game.

The No. 16 Harvard men’s hockey team learned that lesson too late on Saturday night, falling short in a 5-4 defeat to St. Lawrence (4-3, 2-0). The loss marked the first time that Harvard has lost the first three games of the season since the 1951-52 campaign.

“It’s just another learning step for us,” captain Dylan Reese said. “It’s still early in the year, so this adversity that we’ve put up with right now should hopefully pay dividends in the end.”

Giving up two goals in the first period with senior Justin Tobe in the net, the Crimson (0-3, 0-3 ECAC) forced itself to spend the rest of the game playing catch-up. Held scoreless until seven minutes into the second period, Harvard finally put one away during the power play, with Reese pushing the puck past Saints goalie Alex Petizian off an assist from junior Jon Pelle.

Keeping up its momentum, the Crimson offense applied yet more pressure. Skating backwards, freshman Doug Rogers passed the puck to Pelle, who swept down the right side and slammed one in the back of the net 10:41 into the second period, tying it at 2-2.

But the balance of power shifted back to the Saints six minutes later, as St. Lawrence’s Casey Parenteau grabbed an open puck in front of the net after a Reese turnover and slid it past Tobe to regain the lead.

“Unfortunately, for about seven minutes in the second period, we fell asleep,” Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91 said. “We dug ourselves a hole that we couldn’t get out of.”

The Crimson went on to allow two more goals in less than five minutes, creating a deficit it couldn’t overcome.

“The fourth and fifth goals were very much avoidable,” Donato said, “so I think for us to be able to stop the bleeding and keep our composure, that would allow for our third-period deficit to be a little smaller, and allow us to get back in the game. Goals are just too hard to come by to be able to give them up in bunches in that short a period of time.”

The Saints struck for their fourth goal when a St. Lawrence shot bounced off the back of freshman Chad Morin in front of the net, with Tobe unable to get his hands on the ricochet. Soon after, the Saints seized an open puck directly in front of Harvard’s net during the power play and beat Tobe, expanding their lead to 5-2.

“You can say what you want, they got lucky bounces or they didn’t, but it’s part of the game,” Reese said. “So you’ve got to learn how to win, you’ve got to learn how to come back from that, and we weren’t able to do that tonight, but hopefully we’ll learn.”

Regaining its focus, the Crimson came back to score 5:47 into the third, with sophomore Bill Keenan appearing in the slot to send the puck into the back of the St. Lawrence net, boosting the score to 5-3. Harvard kept the pressure on and scored again as senior Ryan Maki picked up the rebound from a shot by sophomore Jimmy Fraser and found the back of the net.

But though the Crimson stepped up its intensity during the third period, it wasn’t enough to take the lead from the Saints.

“Third period was our best period of the year, hands down, so that’s a positive,” Reese said. “But overall, we really panicked at the end of second period.”

In Harvard’s last three losses, a lack of focus in the second period has been especially harmful, as goals let in during mid-game moments of weakness have contributed to defeats against Dartmouth, Clarkson and now St. Lawrence. Despite the third-period surge in which Crimson outshot the Saints 13-4, the deficit proved too much for Harvard.

“I think in the third period, particularly, we were able to keep them in their zone and make them play under pressure, and allow our forwards to get buzzing and use our speed,” Donato said. “Unfortunately, it was too little, too late, but as a coach, I’m proud of the way they responded to adversity.”

Harvard will hope to avoid extending its losing streak tomorrow with a 7 p.m. home game against No. 3 Boston College.