Zalewski’s Hat Trick Powers Golden Knights

On Saturday night at the Bright Hockey Center, the Harvard men’s hockey team discovered that it takes more than hard skating and a torrent of shots on goal to defeat No. 11 Clarkson.

The Crimson (6-9-3, 5-6-2 ECAC) lost, 4-2, to the Golden Knights (12-7-1, 7-3-0), extending its winless streak to nine games.

Despite outshooting Clarkson, 33-28, for the game and generating high-quality scoring opportunities, Harvard never held the lead but displayed fortitude by twice rallying to tie the score.

But in the critical third period, Clarkson outshot Harvard, 11-5.

“I think our guys worked. I’m proud of the way our guys competed and battled,” said Crimson coach Ted Donato ’91. “I know we can execute a lot better than we did—certainly get more pucks offensively to the net in the third period.”

But the Knights’ Steve Zalewski owned the third period, recording a hat trick. He both snapped a 1-1 tie with a wrap-around score 6:35 into the period and later put Clarkson ahead for good with only 3:16 remaining.

In the closing five minutes, as both teams skated in a fierce back-and-forth struggle to break the 2-2 deadlock, Zalewski beat sophomore goalie Kyle Richter for the second time as he skated in from the left and fired a wrist shot into the left corner.

Though Donato pulled Richter with less than two minutes remaining, the extra attacker only gave Zalewski the chance complete his hat trick with an empty-net goal after he managed to clear the puck from Clarkson’s zone.

Though disappointed at the ending, Harvard’s offense gave the Golden Knights defense a challenge by rushing the net in transition, finding teammates in the slot, and screening Clarkson goaltender David Leggio on blue-line shots. Leggio withstood 31 shots for the win.

“I think we out-chanced them tonight. We outshot them, although the shot clock doesn’t count for points,” co-captain David MacDonald said. “We’ve outshot most games this season, and the last two nights, we significantly outshot our opponents. And not only that—we won the physical battle.”

Senior forward Alex Meintel tied the game at 2-2 at 9:46 of the final frame when he received a centering pass from sophomore defenseman Chad Morin and stuffed the puck past Leggio at the left post.

Meintel also added an assist on the Crimson’s first goal at 12:11 of the first period. After sophomore Alex Biega corralled Meintel’s pass at Clarkson’s blue line, his shot through traffic found the stick of co-captain Mike Taylor and was deflected in for the goal.

Penalties did not play a significant role in the game, as each team only drew three penalties and showed off efficient penalty-killing units—good news for Harvard given the team’s recent struggles to stay out of the penalty box. The Golden Knights only came away with three shots on the power-play.

As Harvard sorts its strengths from its weaknesses, the back-to-back losses this weekend have the Crimson searching for the best way forward. The team is hoping to build confidence just by virtue of skating with a top team for 60 minutes and exerting consistent offensive pressure.

“We have too many good players to not be scoring like that, and as I said, I’m proud of the way the guys worked,” MacDonald said. “Our work ethic turned in a lot of scoring chances for, and they’re definitely going to start to go in. I’m definitely optimistic about where we’re going.”

As part of that effort to explore different strategies, Donato used Saturday night’s game to search for the elusive offensive spark by shuffling his forward lines and pairing them with different sets of defensemen.

“We’ve scored so few goals that we’re trying to find different combinations and see if we can get something to click a little bit,” Donato said. “I thought our guys worked hard and competed when we had chances.”

MacDonald is likewise optimistic that the hard work and persistent offensive pressure will eventually put up some big numbers on Harvard’s side of the scoreboard.

“If that’s the first-place team in our league and one of the top teams in the country, then I like our chances come the end of the year,” MacDonald said. “I think we have a lot more to play for.”

The Crimson will have plenty of time to replenish its energy and look for a way forward before returning to the ice on Jan. 26 at Dartmouth.

—Staff writer Robert T. Hamlin can be reached at rhamlin@fas.harvard.edu.