Taylor Saves Day in Gritty Clash with Green

Co-captain Mike Taylor slammed in a shorthanded goal late in a hard-fought game and delivered a physical Dartmouth team (4-4-1, 2-4-1 ECAC) a 1-0 loss at the Bright Hockey Center on Saturday night. Sophomore goalie Kyle Richter closed the door with his third shutout of the season to secure a win for the Harvard men’s hockey team (6-2-1, 5-2-1).

“[Richter] has been our best player, I think, in all but one game,” said head coach Ted Donato ’91, adding, “Tonight, he was seeing the puck well, and it gives our team a huge lift when he’s playing like that.”

After two tense, scoreless periods, 9:31 had elapsed in the third period when senior forward Alex Meintel laid out a Big Green defenseman on the ice by knocking him against the boards. While Meintel served his two minutes minor, Dartmouth enjoyed a power play and possession of the puck. But, taking advantage of a Big Green man-advantage unit that often substitutes forwards in for defensemen, Taylor was able to spoil the show.

“I knew, myself, that forwards don’t usually like to get back and play defense, so I was kind of anticipating that,” Taylor said.

Taylor’s knowledge guided him into perfect position to take advantage of an errant Dartmouth pass that was forced by strong defensive pressure.

The play unfolded when junior center Jimmy Fraser challenged a Big Green forward in the corner and rushed him into making a bad pass behind the Crimson net. Taylor was waiting to seize possession in the neutral zone and began charging down the ice. After splitting two Dartmouth forwards, he beat the lone defender 1-on-1 in the open ice to create enough space for a shot across his body that finished in the top-left corner of the goal.

Taylor’s goal was Harvard’s third shorthanded score this year.

The Crimson consistently put pressure on Dartmouth goaltender Mike Devine, launching 33 shots on net. The Big Green, on the other hand, posted only 27 shots on target.

The game was punctuated by incredibly rough play, even by men’s hockey standards.

“They’ve always had size up front and in their forwards and are physical. So every time we play them we expect a physical game,” Taylor said. “We don’t want to lay down and just have them hit us. We want to step up, too.”

Harvard’s first big chance to score came when freshman forward Michael Biega, coming off of a hat trick Wednesday night, fired a low shot on Devine. Senior forward Paul Dufault and a Dartmouth defender simultaneously pounced on the rebound, and the puck flew over the cage in a scuffle for control.

But the Crimson also survived tense moments in the second period. With sophomore Alex Biega in the penalty box for tripping, Dartmouth’s top scoring combination peppered Richter with multiple shots. Captain Nick Johnson, on a three-game scoring streak, and J.T. Wyman, who is 12th in the nation in points per game, challenged Richter with a shot and followed with a quick rebound attempt.

The play ended with Richter flat on his back on the ice and the game still scoreless.

The Harvard faithful and its band spilled in after the Harvard-Michigan basketball game’s end in good spirits. Raucous Dartmouth fans answered by steadily heckling Richter.

“You don’t really realize it as a young player, but now after—this is my fourth year here—you realize how important each game is,” Taylor said. “After you play against these guys for four years, there’s definitely a rivalry there.”

Despite the win, the Crimson missed crucial opportunities to score early in the game, and the team recorded only four shots during its three power plays.

At one point, Harvard even failed to score on an empty net when freshman forward Matt McCollem’s shot clanged off the post.

“When you have a chance at an empty net and you don’t take advantage of it, you do worry that you might not get another one of those, and it might be one of those nights,” Donato said.