NOTEBOOK: Harvard Takes Win In Historic Pairing

There was no love in the air at the Bright Hockey Center on Valentine’s Day. Instead, it was a hard-hitting, physical, and sometimes wild battle for the Harvard men’s hockey team (7-14-4, 7-7-4 ECAC) against its historical foe, No. 6 Cornell (15-6-4, 10-5-3, ECAC).

The rivalry between the two teams is one of the oldest in intercollegiate competition, dating back to 1910.

With bragging rights and crucial league points on the line, it was no surprise that both teams came onto the ice with their sticks swinging, ready to play. The Crimson and the Big Red combined for 28 minutes in the box, taking penalties for roughing, high-sticking, and tripping, among other infractions.

And despite Cornell’s overpowering offense, it was Harvard that came out on top for its biggest win of the season with effective special teams play.

“I thought we did a lot of good things and when you play good teams, even when you do a lot of good things, they can put you under a lot of pressure,” Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91 said. “Cornell played an excellent game, and we have a lot of respect for them.”

POWER PLAY

Despite holding a 20-shot deficit to the Big Red on the night, the Crimson’s offensive unit was right on target when it did make attempts at net.

The Crimson’s surge came in spite of playing against the nation’s stingiest goaltender in the Big Red’s Ben Scrivens. Leading up to Saturday night’s game, Scrivens led the nation in save percentage at .948 and goals against average at 1.42.

Special teams were huge for the team, as Harvard scored all four of its tallies on power play opportunities for a conversion rate of 0.667.

Last night’s performance by the Crimson’s offensive unit was a step in the right direction, as the team has been well under 0.500 in the past five games in power play conversion. Just take last week’s 5-1 loss to Yale as an example—Harvard was unable to take advantage of any of its man-advantage opportunities.

Unsurprisingly, the Crimson’s success on the power play has been highly correlated with its ability to win games. In each of Harvard’s seven wins this season, the Crimson’s power play conversion percentage has been greater than or equal to that of its opponents.

PENALTY KILL

The Big Red outshot the Crimson 44-24 on the night. The shot differential transpired entirely in the second and third periods, ironically the same time as when Harvard leapt ahead on the scoreboard.

The somewhat oppositional statistics may be justified by the Crimson’s superb defense, which killed all seven of Cornell’s power play opportunities of the game.

Anchoring Harvard’s defensive efforts was sophomore goaltender Ryan Carroll, who stopped 42 shots en route to the team’s 4-2 win.

“In general your goaltenders arte always your best penalty killer and I think [Carroll] certainly was tonight,” Donato said.

It was the second-year’s second 40-plus save night in just three games since he’s taken over the role of starting goaltender for the Crimson. Carroll made his starting debut in last week’s Beanpot consolation final against No. 15 Boston College.

“I think Ryan [Carroll] has worked awfully hard in practice,” Donato said. “You know [he] deserved an opportunity. Now in his first three games, he’s grabbed the opportunity and played well.”

On Saturday night, Carroll was forced to make some spectacular saves to keep Harvard in the game against a crushing Big Red offense. Case in point: the second-year gloved a powerful slapshot during a Cornell power play late in the first period to keep the score even going into the break.

Carroll’s ability to remain calm and focused, despite facing an over-ranked opponent and long-time rival in Cornell, contributed to the team’s narrow victory.

“Being mentally prepared is most important I think, and I really was tonight,” Carroll said. “Coach [Donato] tells us whoever’s playing well is going to keep playing.”

—Staff writer Lucy D. Chen can be reached at lucychen@fas.harvard.edu.