Ancient Foe Provides Chance to Rebound

The men’s hockey team travels to take on conference rival Brown tonight at 7 pm, and the time is ripe for a Crimson comeback. Harvard was last left reeling from a 6-0 loss to No. 14 Boston College in the semifinals of the 58th Beanpot tournament Monday night.

The Crimson (5-12-3, 5-6-3 conference) and the Bears (7-12-2, 5-7-2) have already met once this season on Dec. 1, when Brown skated away with a decisive 4-1 victory through impressive goalkeeping and power-play execution.

Ever since then, Harvard has been on a wild roller coaster of wins and losses, including a trio of two-game losing streaks and a four-game unbeaten run. Tonight’s match-up will be critical in proving that although it may be down, the Crimson is not out.

“It’s an important game, particularly come off the bad loss to Boston College,” senior Doug Rogers said. “This is our chance to get back on track if we can stick to what we set out to do and win.”

The Bears have been experiencing troubles of their own, battling a five-game losing streak in early January during which they fell to conference opponents, Dartmouth, 9-4, and Yale, 8-5, leaving Brown currently one point behind Harvard in the conference.

“Obviously we’ve had a bumpy season so far,” captain Alex Biega said. “With Brown so close to us in standings, we can place anywhere. It’s a huge game and a huge weekend for us.”

This will be the 156th time the two Ivy teams have met, making it the oldest rivalry in hockey. The Bears have come away with three straight victories over the Crimson and are 3-0-2 against them in the last five games.

Back in December, Harvard opened with a string of shots that were all stopped by Brown’s goaltender, sophomore Mike Clemente. The scoreboard remained empty until 1:58 remained in the first period, when Bears sophomore Jared Smith was able to deflect a shot past Crimson netminder Kyle Richter for a 1-0 lead.

Brown furthered its lead early in the second period on a goal by another sophomore, Jeff Buvinow, who was able to sneak a shot by Richter between the left post and his glove. Harvard managed to get on the board late in the second period, ending the Bears’ four-game shutout streak against Harvard.

The goal came off the stick of freshman Conor Morrison, who deflected the puck inside the near post.

But after the game-changing goal, Brown was able to secure the win with two empty-net goals in the third period after Richter was subbed out in favor of an extra attacker.

To win out over the Bears the second time around, the Crimson will need to match Brown’s intense level of play.

“It’s always a battle against [Brown],” Biega said. “We have to just take it period by period and play our game.”

“We have to come ready to play and stick to our game plan,” Rogers added. “We need to play hard and with a lot of effort, regardless what happens.”

With only nine games remaining in the season, including a final contest in the Beanpot at Boston’s TD Garden, the Crimson needs to settle on an effective playing style and translate it into wins.

“Now it’s about finding our identity, individually and collectively,” Biega said. “Once we establish that, we can put wins together, and when we’re playing well, we can beat any team in the country.”

Harvard has had moments of brilliance throughout its season—namely, its three-game winning streak against Yale, Dartmouth, and Union, which was followed by an overtime 3-3 tie against Rensselaer. The trick will be in taking these moments of brilliance and extending them over the course of a season, or at least another game.

The Crimson has the talent, just not yet the consistency.

“It’s easy to forget the game plan and panic if we go down a couple goals,” Rogers said. “But against [Brown] we need to come ready to play and stick to the strategy.”

For Rogers, Biega, and the four remaining seniors on the team, the game against Brown—and the eight match-ups following it—mark not only the end of their season, but the end of their career at Harvard.

“We have 9 games total left to play and win,” Biega said. “We’re not taking anything for granted.”

—Staff writer B. Marjorie Gullick can be reached at gullick@college.harvard.edu.