Streaking No. 20 Harvard Wins Triple-OT Thriller

Almost exactly one year ago, the Harvard men’s lacrosse team traveled to Denver and returned heartbroken after a 9-8 loss on two Pioneer goals with less than 24 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.

With time expiring in regulation last Saturday at Jordan Field, it looked as if history might repeat itself.

But on junior Greg Cohen’s goal with 1:15 left in the third overtime period, the No. 20 Crimson (4-2) pulled away with a measure of revenge and an 8-7 victory over No. 14 Denver (5-3) on Saturday.

“I think we had last year in our minds,” Cohen said. “We definitely wanted to pay them back a little bit for that. So we were able to do that and beat a ranked team.”

The win was Harvard’s second in a row against a ranked opponent, and gave the Crimson its first two-game winning streak of the season and first home victory.

The big story was the number of missed opportunities or, what some would argue, the number of missed calls: the Crimson had four goals called back in the game, including a shot from Cohen that went in just after the buzzer went off to end regulation.

Starting the fourth down 5-4, the Pioneers made things look bleaker, scoring with 12:45 left on an unassisted goal from sophomore Todd Ruport to make it 6-5.

But Harvard was far from done.

After Cohen’s first goal of the game, unassisted with 10:24 left, the Crimson tied the score at six on Motschwiller’s third goal of the game, assisted by junior Evan Calvert.

Entering the weekend, Motschwiller had just two goals on the season.

“Max is just getting better every single week,” Cohen said. “Athletically he’s playing way above his level and he’s getting his legs under him. He’s going to be a force to reckon with later in the season.”

Harvard regained the lead on a goal from junior Carle Stenmark, assisted by sophomore Brooks Scholl, with 4:57 to play in the fourth.

As if to repeat last year’s comeback, Denver sought to outplay the Crimson in the game’s final minutes. Pioneer senior Geoff Snider scored with 2:38 left to tie the game at seven.

“We were a little disappointed in our reaction to the pressure,” Anderson said. “There are not very many teams that play like [the Pioneers]; we let them make it work.”

But in overtime, Harvard paid no attention to the setbacks.

Early in the extra minutes it was all Denver, as the Pioneers controlled all three faceoffs, leading to a monopolization of time of possession.

But thanks to five saves from freshman goalie Joe Pike, the game remained tied at seven until Cohen’s game-winning goal in the third overtime.

Pike was not the only goaltender to hold strong for the squad.

In the first quarter sophomore Evan O’Donnell posted seven saves to back up the struggling Crimson defense, which could not keep up with the agile Denver attackers.

“The game could have been over,” Harvard coach Scott Anderson said. “We were so badly outplayed in the first quarter in terms of our energy and our ball possession and all that. He basically kept us in the game.”

The Crimson took the lead at 1-0 at just 4:11 into the first on an unassisted goal from freshman Max Motschwiller. It failed to hold on for long as Pioneers senior Andrew McCuiston scored his first goal of the season with 3:47 left off of a save by O’Donnell, tying the game at one.

The second quarter fared worse for the seemingly fatigued Harvard squad.

The Crimson took six shots in the period, many of them from point-blank range, but was unable to put the ball in the back of the net.

Denver had no such trouble, scoring twice in the period on goals from juniors David Hahn and Brandon Barcus and giving the Pioneers a 3-1 lead going into halftime.

“I thought today, especially in the first half, they had a lot more energy than we had,” Anderson said. “We just didn’t hang on.”

The third quarter was as eventful as the fourth, with Harvard tying the game at three with goals from Calvert and sophomore Zach Widbin, only to fall behind 5-3 with 3:41 left.

Motschwiller made it a one-goal game with his second unassisted goal of the game, just over a minute before the end of the period.

“In the second half [Denver] made some mistakes,” Anderson said. “They weren’t able to hang on to the physical momentum in the game. But I think this is a good sign that our players manufactured some goals. Our offense was not very attractive today.”

The Crimson will take on its third ranked team in a row and just its second Ivy League opponent next weekend, facing Cornell at Jordan Field.

—Staff writer Madeline I. Shapiro can be reached at msharpiro@fas.harvard.edu.