Men's Hockey Drops Two in Minnesota

Home-ice advantage seems to be a theme of the Minnesota-Harvard hockey rivalry. In December, the Crimson women twice shut out the then No. 2 Golden Gophers at Bright Hockey Center, but on Friday and Saturday nights the Harvard men’s hockey team (2-10-2, 2-5-2 ECAC) found itself on the other side of the coin as it dropped both contests in Mariucci Arena, 5-2 and 3-1.

In many sports, home advantage comes from outside factors—weather, fans, travel complications. But according to the Crimson players, Mariucci, the home rink of the Golden Gophers (11-10-2), was daunting because of the ice itself.

“I don’t know if we were prepared to play on the Olympic sheet,” freshman Conor Morrison said.

The larger rink size lends itself to faster, more fluid hockey, whereas Bright’s smaller rink is geared toward tougher, more physical play.

“Minnesota’s one of the most physically gifted teams in the country,” captain Alex Biega said.

Harvard was able to adapt to the rink over the course of the weekend, playing a tighter game on Saturday than it had on Friday. But the trip to the Twin Cities proved disappointing to a team that had just ended a 10-game winless streak with an upset of No. 8 Quinnipiac.

MINNESOTA 3, HARVARD 1

Hockey is not a game for slow learners, and the Crimson’s improved play in the second game of the double-header was not enough against the Golden Gophers Saturday.

“I think we were better with the puck,” Alex Biega said. “There were a lot of good signs.”

Minnesota put the puck on the net early, though, outshooting Harvard in the opening minutes—a trend that would continue for the rest of the game. But junior goaltender Kyle Richter stood tall, and when the Crimson found a window, it was able to notch the first goal as sophomore Colin Moore scored at 7:57 in the first.

But Harvard continued to be outshot and the Crimson lost its early lead before the period expired when Minnesota’s Cade Fairchild took advantage of a Golden Gopher power-play with less than a minute left in the period.

Harvard was never able to rebuild momentum as Minnesota would outshoot it by increasing margins—14-7 in the second period and 16-6 in the third.

Golden Gopher sophomore Nick Larson put Minnesota ahead midway through the second period. A holding penalty on Mike Carmen gave Harvard a chance to retaliate, but shots by senior Doug Rogers and Alex Biega didn’t make it to the goal, where goaltender Kent Patterson was starting for the first time since December 4.

Larson would seal the deal for Minnesota just eleven seconds into the third period. “We’ve learned some valuable lessons,” Biega said. “It’s a matter of really sticking together as a team.”

MINNESOTA 5, HARVARD 2

For two periods, Harvard played Minnesota evenly. When senior Chad Morin gave the Crimson the only goal of the second period, it looked like momentum from Harvard’s decade-ending win over Quinnipiac might carry it to another upset.

But the Golden Gophers still had a few tricks up their sleeves as the hosts scored four goals in the third period to defeat the Crimson 5-2 in the Mariucci Arena. Only one of these came on a power play.

The period was perhaps the lowest point of Harvard’s doubleheader.

“We had far too many turnovers,” Alex Biega said.

Jacob Cepis wasted little time reclaiming the Gophers’ lead in the third period, taking advantage of period-opening power play to put Minnesota up 2-1 before a minute had expired.

The shots just kept coming at Richter, who made 40 saves Friday, and by the middle of the period the Gophers had racked up a 4-1 lead following goals by Nico Sacchetti and Zach Budish.

Minnesota’s third goal in the period looked to be a wakeup call for the Crimson, who started putting more pucks on the net after that point. Though the squad was unable to take advantage of a power play, Morin scored his second goal of the night—and of the season—a minute later to put Harvard back within two.

“He’s worked awful hard,” Biega said. “It’s great to see that kind of stuff.”

With the deficit reduced, the Crimson pulled Richter from net in a last-ditch effort to tie the game up. The plan backfired as Tony Lucia scored with just two seconds remaining to put the Gophers’ final margin of victory back to three.