Crimson Recovers, Claws Past Tigers

If there’s such thing as a good loss, the defeat that Boston College handed the Harvard men’s hockey team last week in the finals of the Beanpot Tournament has to be it.

Having taken the seventh-ranked Eagles into overtime, the Crimson had all the confidence it needed to take down another heavyweight. In its second consecutive contest against a ranked and favored opponent, Harvard used sophomore Doug Rogers’ first career hat trick to power to a 3-2 victory over No. 17 Princeton Friday night at Bright Hockey Center.

After notching a goal and two assists in the Beanpot final, Rogers’s performance Friday gave him six points in two games. Solid puck movement from the first offensive line set up the sophomore’s second goal at 2:20 of the third period as co-captain Mike Taylor sent a cross from the left wing through the Tigers’ zone. Waiting by the weak side post, Rogers had only to reach out and redirect Taylor’s pass past Princeton goaltender Zane Kalemba (18 saves).

Just over a minute later and just 11 seconds into a power-play opportunity, Rogers swooped in from the left side to drill home a rebound of freshman Alex Biega’s shot and give the Crimson a more comfortable 3-1 advantage.

“As the season goes on, you start to connect better because you practice it, you practice it, you practice it,” Rogers said. “Passes start to go tape to tape and we’re just starting to work well as a unit.”

Sophomore goaltender Kyle Richter withstood a flurry of Princeton advances late—13 of his 33 saves came in the third period—and made the lead stand up.

The high number of penalties was the lone blemish on an otherwise solid showing for Harvard. The Crimson sent a player to the box nine times and suffered a sequence of five straight penalties midway through the second period. Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91 cited the hands-off officiating in the Beanpot as a potential cause of the Crimson’s lack of discipline Friday, but offered no excuses.

“We spent so much time in the box during the second period, and two things happened: one, it keeps some of our best players off the ice, and two, some of our best players get tired killing the penalties,” Donato said. “There are times when penalties are necessary to save goals, but these were not good penalties.”

Unsurprisingly, power plays made the difference, and the Harvard penalty kill played a key supporting role to Richter’s standout performance. While Princeton outshot the Crimson 35-21 on the night, Harvard killed seven of the Tigers’ eight 5-on-4 chances.

With the Crimson’s Jon Pelle and Jimmy Fraser in the box, Princeton finally broke through on a 5-on-3 opportunity as the Tigers’ Mike Moore sent in a shot from the left wing at 5:50 in the second period. In the scuffle for Richter’s deflection, Princeton’s Lee Jubinville managed to poke a second attempt past Richter to tie the score at one.

The favored Tigers wouldn’t go quietly in the third period, testing Richter and the Harvard defense and getting a goal on a Moore slapshot at 12:28 to make things interesting.

A couple of close calls in the Crimson zone had the Princeton reserves raising their sticks on the bench in their hopes for the equalizer, but Richter fell on several last-minute chances to seal the victory.

“We’re happy with the win, but I think we were fortunate to come away with a victory,” Donato said. “Princeton gave us a lot of pressure situations tonight and we were able to bend and not break.”

An uneventful first period ended in a scoreless tie, but Princeton was quicker to the puck throughout and held a 10-5 shot advantage for the period.

“I don’t know if it was an emotional letdown from [the Beanpot final], but we didn’t really come out getting after them and we sat back,” Taylor said. “Overall, we’ve got to play a sixty-minute game. We got away with one.”

Rogers got the scoring started two minutes into the second period, slapping a rebound of freshman Chris Huxley’s shot from the left side past Kalemba up top.

The victory prevented the Tigers from clinching their first outright Ivy League title. The loss was just the second in 11 games and the first in the Ivies this season for the second-place team in the ECAC.

—Staff writer Emily W. Cunningham can be reached at ecunning@fas.harvard.edu.