Pressure, Offensive Aggression Pay Dividends

PROVIDENCE, R.I.—Entering Friday night’s contest against Brown, the Harvard men’s hockey team had won one of its last five. It was time to put some pucks on net—and high time for some bodies to follow the discs into the fray.

“It’s nice to make the backdoor passes and pretty plays,” junior winger Ryan Maki said. “But the best opportunity is when we shoot the puck.”

And so, when he skated the puck up to the right edge of the blue line with less than four minutes to go in the first period, Maki didn’t just dump it into the corner. Rather, he took a shot, one that zipped right past Brown’s Adam D’Alba near the left post for a 1-0 lead.

“I think I caught myself by surprise,” Maki admitted. “I definitely caught the goaltender by surprise.

“I didn’t really aim it, per se,” he added, laughing. “I certainly didn’t pick a corner or anything.”

But it worked. After launching just six shots on goal during that first period in Meehan Auditorium, the Crimson (12-8-2, 9-7-1 ECAC) managed 35 in the final two frames and another half-dozen in overtime.

After all, coach Ted Donato ’91 had preached to his skaters, “You’ve got to put pucks to the net any way you can and get some ugly goals to get things rolling.”

And 2:55 into overtime, senior wing Dan Murphy broke towards the goal and launched a shot that hit the netminder and bounced into the crease. Already stumbling, Murphy hurled his body around the goalie and towards the puck, poking his own rebound into the empty net as he towards the boards.

“He’s had some big goals,” Donato said, “and that was a huge boost.”

POWER OUTAGE

The Crimson power play went 0-for-7 Friday night, scoreless on 15 man-advantage shots.

“We’re not getting the bounces,” said Murphy as he shook his head about his team’s recent 2-for-45 skid. “We’re so close—just a few bounces.”

D’Alba’s acrobatic saves quashed Harvard’s run during a third-period 5-on-3, and the Crimson couldn’t muster anything with a second period five-minute hitting-from-behind major called on Brown’s Antonin Roux.

“The optimist in me feels we can do so much better if we put those chances,” Donato said. “Our power play had the chance to make it a two-goal game so many times.”

But Harvard’s penalty kill held the Bears to four scoreless shots on seven power plays, and the Crimson units, which boast an 85.9 percent success rate, rank ninth in the coutry.

TOURNEY TIME

The Crimson opens up the 54th Beanpot against Boston University at 8 tonight in TD Banknorth Garden.

Harvard has won the four-team tournament for local bragging rights 10 times—that ranks them third, behind the Terriers and Boston College—but the Crimson’s last title came in 1993, and the team hasn’t made the championship game since 1998.

Harvard tied now-No. 8 Boston University, 2-2, at the Bright Center on Nov. 22.

ALONG THE BOARDS

Sophomore Mike Taylor left the ice after an awkward collision in the first period and never returned to the bench. Donato said the forward, who walked on crutches after the game, would be reevaluated once in Cambridge...The Crimson’s 47 shots on goal were a season-high, and Murphy took eight of them...Harvard had shut out Brown twice in a row—including last season—heading into Friday’s game, and the Bears’ lone goal, scored 14:07 into the third period, snapped a streak of nearly 189 scoreless minutes against the Crimson...After the weekend’s action, Dartmouth, Harvard, and St. Lawrence sit third, fourth, and fifth in the ECAC with 20, 19, and 18 points, respectively. But the Crimson has just three league contests left to play, while the other two teams have four. The ECAC’s top four teams get a first-round bye in the postseason tournament and then home-ice advantage for the quarterfinal round.

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