Men's Hockey Drops Two Close Conference Road Games

The Harvard men’s hockey team played two completely different games this weekend.

On Friday night at Princeton, assistant captain goaltender Kyle Richter only allowed one goal—often sufficient for a win.

On Saturday at Quinnipiac, the team tallied four scores, also normally boding well for victory.

But unfortunately for the Crimson (2-4-2, 2-4-2 ECAC), neither effort was enough, as the team lost the two contests by one goal each—mustering neither enough offense against the Tigers (4-4-0, 4-2-0) nor enough defense versus the Bobcats (7-4-1, 3-2-1) to pick up a conference win.

“Anytime you lose a game by a goal it’s tough, but from Friday to Saturday night was a pretty big transition,” sophomore Connor Morrison said. “Friday night was a big defensive battle; Saturday night turned into a run-and-gun game.”

QUINNIPIAC 5, HARVARD 4

After excellent goalie play on both sides Friday, Saturday night’s contest was a completely different story.

Despite scoring three times in just over four minutes late in the second period, the Crimson could not contain a high-powered Bobcat offense at TD Bank Sports Center and suffered its third consecutive loss.

Quinnipiac got on the board first when John Dunbar deflected a shot past Richter at 10:21 in the opening period on a power play. Harvard had entered the game as the nation’s best penalty-killing squad statistically.

Yuri Bouharevich put the Bobcats up, 2-0, just 40 seconds later, taking a pass after flying down the half boards and firing the puck off a Crimson defender and into the goal.

“In both games, I think we hit a little lull within the game, and I think our intensity level dropped for short periods of time,” Morrison said. “In this league, you have to play hard for 60 minutes, and we didn’t do that.”

But Harvard roared back to pull within one late in the period. After sophomore Marshall Everson was denied on a rebound attempt off a shot by sophomore Danny Biega, Morrison came in from the right to put Everson’s rebound away and make the score 2-1.

After Quinnipiac scored twice more—on a one-timer by Ben Arnt and a goal by Kellen Jones, who took a through-the-legs pass from brother Connor before firing on net—the Crimson fought back to tie things up.

Junior Colin Moore made it 4-2 when he put back a rebound of a shot by co-captain Michael Del Mauro, and a shorthanded goal from junior Rence Coassin pulled the Crimson within one.

“I think we stuck to the simple things [Saturday],” Morrison said. “We started getting pucks to the net...when you do that, bounces are going to go your way. Friday night, we weren’t necessarily getting bounces, guys weren’t in the right places.”

With just 14.6 seconds remaining in the second period, junior Alex Killorn tied things up, beating Bobcat netminder Eric Hartzell from the left side.

But in the third, Arnt scored his second goal of the evening with 5:12 remaining, firing a one-timer past senior goalie Ryan Carroll—who replaced Richter after Quinnipiac’s third goal—to provide the dagger.

Hartzell made a huge save in the final minute, reaching back over his left leg to make a glove stop on Everson and give his team the win.

“It’s tough,” Morrison said. “I think the guys are a little down, but there’s definitely a lot of positives to take out of the weekend. We were only a couple shots away from winning those games.”

PRINCETON 1, HARVARD 0

In a rematch of the first round of last season’s ECAC playoffs—when the Crimson swept its conference rivals—the Tigers got a measure of revenge with a shutout victory on Friday at Hobey Baker Rink.

Harvard came out on the attack, firing six shots during a power play early in the first period. But Princeton goalie Mike Condon saved each attempt, denying Crimson forward Killorn on a shot from the right side and making a diving stick save on the junior’s rebound attempt.

The Tigers then got on the board midway through the period, when Mike Kramer took a pass across the zone from teammate Kevin Ross and fired a shot from the left faceoff circle, beating Richter.

It was all Princeton would need the rest of the way, thanks to the phenomenal play of Condon.

In the second period, the sophomore stopped Coassin on a one-on-one and made a save on a deflection right in front of the goal by junior Daniel Moriarty.

The Crimson outshot the Tigers in the third period, but Condon made a stick save on a Killorn attempt and later survived a chance by Harvard senior Matt McCollem, whose backhanded shot on net was ruled no goal after it flickered in the air above the goal line.

“[Condon] played well,” Everson said. “I just thought we didn’t do a good enough job right away of getting to the net. We had our shots, but didn’t get the rebounds. I felt the bounces didn’t go our way.”

With four minutes remaining, the Crimson had its best opportunity to tie the game. But after a string of Harvard chances, Princeton forward Brodie Zuk made a diving save at the goal line to kick away senior Michael Biega’s shot from the right side and preserve the Tiger shutout.

Killorn led the team with six shots, while Richter made 34 saves in defeat.

“[Richter] was unbelievable,” Everson said. “Just as he’s been all season for us.”

—Staff writer Scott A. Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu.