NOTEBOOK: Sloppy Play Late Brings Fifth Straight Loss

Things were supposed to be different this year.

A new-look Harvard squad started off the 2008 campaign with a flashy 4-1 record, showing it was a force to be reckoned with. But the last five games have demonstrated why the team, while good, is still waiting to break through to greatness.

Saturday’s 9-8 overtime loss was far from the first heartbreaker for the young squad. Four of the six Crimson losses this season have come by two goals or fewer, and Saturday’s overtime was the team’s second extra-minutes defeat of the year—the first coming in a 10-9 loss at Denver.

“I’m proud of the guys,” Crimson coach John Tillman said. “After the last four games they could’ve felt sorry for themselves, and they came out with a lot of emotion, a lot of passion. They showed that this program is on the rise...I think we’re going to be a very strong team in the future and I think we’re going to be around for a long time. That’s the exciting part for us. We’re not going anywhere.”

STRIVING FOR 60

In perhaps its most complete game yet this season, the Crimson failed to play a full 60 minutes of defense, allowing four goals in the final 15 minutes—five in the last 16—in addition to the game winner just under three minutes into overtime.

Whether it was the sudden shift in weather—the sunny 65-degree weather quickly became torrential downpours late in the fourth—fatigue, or simply being outplayed, the final quarter was an aberration from Harvard’s general play, as the first three frames had been some of the best all season for the defensive corps.

Aided by the fact that Princeton junior and leading scorer Mark Kovler went down in practice with a broken foot, the defense used its four-game losing streak as motivation to play its most suffocating defense yet.

Junior goalie Joe Pike continued to show he can play with the best, posting nine saves—five in the final frame—behind a defense that smothered the Tigers’ scoring attack by forcing Princeton to the perimeter and leaving no holes in the inside as it had on numerous occasions the previous weekend. The squad allowed just three goals before the break, and Princeton’s first third quarter shot didn’t come until after nearly eight minutes of play.

“These guys are fighting really hard and they want it more than anything,” tri-captain Brooks Scholl said.

“Joe’s been playing great, keeping us in a lot of games,” he added. “It’s just a matter of us buckling down towards the end.”

TURNING IT OVER

In the end it was mistakes that killed the Crimson.

The faceoff stat line read all Tigers all day on another tough outing for Harvard at the X.

Princeton senior Alex Berg won 15-of-21 faceoffs; although junior Nick Smith and freshman Christian Oberbeck stuck with him, their combined efforts were outweighed by the inability of Harvard’s wings to pick up loose balls.

The Crimson won the opening two faceoffs but couldn’t take another until 13 seconds remained in the second quarter, going 3-for-11 in the first half. While the defense was able to regain possessions before the break, the 2-for-9 mark after half time alongside a number of other mistakes in the fourth frame gave Princeton the momentum to come back.

The Tigers outshot the Crimson 37-27 and had more ground balls—a 24-18 edge. Despite Princeton’s better overall numbers, none of it probably would have mattered were it not for the most costly statistic—eight turnovers in the fourth quarter. Time after time the Crimson would steal back the momentum only to turn the ball over and give the Tigers another shot at trimming the margin.

An offsides call with 2:53 left in the game and Harvard up 8-6 was the difference between a long Crimson possession running out the clock and Princeton’s seventh goal, which came under a minute later.

“In certain ways it was our best effort of the year, we just couldn’t pull it out down the stretch,” Tillman said. “I think we probably played too much defense. We failed to clear a couple of times, and had shorter possessions, which put a lot of pressure on them...we probably got fatigued, made a couple of mistakes in terms of the game plan,” he added.

—Staff writer Madeleine I. Shapiro can be reached mshapiro@fas.harvard.edu.