Crimson Blown Out by Lowly Dartmouth Team

Just back from Thanksgiving break, the Harvard men’s hockey team wasn’t feeling the holiday cheer after suffering a 6-2 loss to Dartmouth (3-6-0).

The non-league defeat brought the Crimson’s (1-6-2) winless streak to eight games.

“Dartmouth was good—compound that with the fact that we were not very good, and that’s the result we got,” Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91 said. “I don’t wish to demean Dartmouth’s effort, but I thought it was one of our worst games of the season.”

The Big Green outshot the Crimson, 41-29, and scored two goals in each period to snap Dartmouth’s six-game winless streak against its rival.

Big Green forward Scott Fleming continued his offensive dominance with another multi-goal game, bookending the Harvard thumping with first- and third-period goals.

“We came out flat, didn’t come out with any emotion, with no firepower, and we did that consistently throughout the game,” captain Alex Biega said. “It wasn’t just the first period, it was an ongoing event. We didn’t have much passion, much fire out there tonight.”

There were a few redemptive moments on the Crimson power play. Harvard’s special teams killed all three Dartmouth penalties, and sophomore Daniel Moriarty, junior Michael Biega, and freshman Alex Fallstrom seized on the Crimson’s man-advantages to generate some offensive chances against the Big Green.

Tallying the first multi-goal game of his career, Moriarty scored both of Harvard’s goals, with Michael Biega and Fallstrom assisting on both chances. But these efforts were not enough to dig the Crimson out of its early hole.

Outshooting Harvard, 15-10, in the first frame, Dartmouth got the edge at the outset with a two-goal lead, scoring twice on rushes. Fleming launched a wrist shot after taking it up the right side, sending the puck past Crimson netminder Ryan Carroll at 9:58 for his first goal of the game. Dartmouth winger Dustin Walsh followed up with a goal at the end of the period, capitalizing on another outnumbered rush to double the lead 2-0.

“We caused some of our own issues,” Donato said. “Dartmouth gave us things that gave us trouble…but we made some plays where we stayed up off of their rush—whether it was forwards or defensemen—and turned what would have been two-on-two or two-on-three situations into two-on-ones and the like.”

Harvard had a chance to recover when the Big Green’s Connor Goggin was sent to the box for roughing in the first minute of the second period.

After receiving a pass from Michael Biega, Moriarty fed the puck to Fallstrom, who sent a shot at the Dartmouth net. Goaltender Jody O’Neill denied the rookie’s attempt, but Moriarty pounced on the rebound to put the Crimson on the board, 2-1.

In response, the Big Green stepped up its offensive efforts, putting away two more before the period was over and notching back-to-back goals less than a minute apart.

“The first ten minutes of the second period, we had a little jump in our step…but we continued to give up outnumbered rushes, to turn the puck over, and ultimately fed their offensive engine by giving them quality scoring chances,” Donato said.

Harvard outshot the Big Green in the third period, 14-12, but it was too little, too late.

Moriarty let a one-timer fly in the first five minutes of the final frame, securing his second goal of the game. But Dartmouth bounced back with another pair of goals.

Fleming finished off a pass from Matt Reber to extend the lead to 5-2.

And as the Crimson made a last-ditch effort to close the gap, pulling the goalie for nearly two minutes, the Big Green’s Josh Gillam tapped in an empty-netter to seal the score with a four-point advantage.

“It’s really tough to play with confidence when you’re on a losing streak,” Alex Biega said. “When things get tough, the tough get going—that’s the saying we’ve been going with, but we haven’t really been showing it on the ice.”

—Staff writer Courtney D. Skinner can be reached at cskinner@fas.harvard.edu.