Excitement, Intensity Lacking in Crimson’s Second Straight Consolation Matchup

BOSTON—It was a tale of two stadiums.

As the puck dropped last night at 5 p.m., TD Banknorth Garden was a decidedly different place than it was a week ago, when all four tournament participants had a chance to take the title. With only dignity left to play for in the consolation round, few fans were in attendance, especially during the game’s first half.

“I think it’s difficult because it’s a very late-arriving crowd, and it’s certainly a little bit of a letdown after the first night,” said Crimson coach Ted Donato ’91. “But as a team, we don’t get to play enough games that any of them should be letdown games.”

Additionally, the game may have lacked an air of electricity because, with Harvard unbeaten in its last three division contests and slowly climbing in the ECAC standings, non-conference play may have seemed like a secondary concern.

“It is a little bit of an odd game in the fact that we’re in the middle of a playoff race,” Donato said. “We have games that might be a little bit more important—certainly not more important than the Beanpot final, but maybe the Beanpot consolation game.”

JUSTIN TIME

Last season, the Crimson had a bona fide star between the pipes in senior goaltender John Daigneau, but it was then-junior Justin Tobe who got the start in the Beanpot’s consolation game, blanking Northeastern 5-0 almost a year ago to the day.

Tobe, now a senior, had been relegated to backup status again, with freshman Kyle Richter starting the last 10 games of the 2007 campaign. And once more, Tobe emerged as the consolation game starter.

“It was an opportunity to give Justin a chance to play,” Donato said. “He played very well earlier in the year when he was getting more opportunities.”

While Tobe absorbed the loss this time around, surrendering three Husky goals, the scores may have been the result of defensive breakdowns rather than his play in net.

“I thought Justin played well, he really battled in there,” Donato said. “I think we would have liked to play a little better defense in front of him.”

“You feel for a guy that hasn’t played seven weeks and comes in and plays a great game,” captain defenseman Dylan Reese added. ”[It was] just not a good effort in front of him, none of [the goals] were his fault.”

STAYING POWER-LESS

Just as it had in the tournament’s first round, Harvard received numerous power play opportunities but failed to come away with a man-advantage goal. And once again, a lack of fundamentals was to blame.

“For too much of the game, we didn’t do a lot of the little things that add up to success,” Donato said, adding, “We weren’t able to execute on the special teams, and we’d like to have played better.”

“The power play was terrible at the Beanpot as a whole,” Reese added. “They kept giving us power plays and power play chances to stay in the game...We knew what they were going to do—it wasn’t any different than anything we’d seen all year. We just struggled to get the puck in the zone.”

TWO-MINUTE MINORS

In addition to Tobe, freshman Ian Tallett and senior Brendan Byrne also received starts. For Byrne, a resident of Milton, Mass., it was the last chance to play in the Boston area’s biggest venue...the Crimson didn’t commit a penalty for the first 29:17 of play.

—Staff writer Daniel J. Rubin-Wills can be reached at drubin@fas.harvard.edu.