Bulldogs’ Rally Too Much to Handle

Having already beaten Yale, 3-2, on Jan. 12, the Harvard men’s hockey team had its sights set on a season sweep of the Elis Saturday. With this weekend’s game tied 2-2 in the third period, it looked as if the Crimson (6-13-3, 6-7-3 ECAC) would have a chance to accomplish its goal.

But a third-period surge by No. 8 Yale (14-6-3, 10-4-2) led to three unanswered goals and an eventual 6-3 victory for the Bulldogs at Ingalls Rink in New Haven, Conn.

“I think that in the game overall we had spurts where we played real good hockey, but we didn’t play the full 60 minutes,” sophomore Alex Killorn said. “We also ran into some penalty trouble, which ended up hurting us in the end.”

Yale seized control of the contest in the first period, outpacing the Crimson in shots. The Bulldog attackers peppered junior goaltender Ryan Carroll, who finished the game with 41 saves. The numerous offensive chances created a 17-4 advantage in shots and two-goal lead for Yale by the end of the opening frame.

“I thought we got off to a bad start in the first period,” senior Doug Rogers said. “I think we were surprised by the speed they brought to the game.”

Harvard rebounded in the second period, inching back into the game with a power play goal by junior defenseman Chris Huxley. The scoring play started on the stick of junior Mike Biega, who found his brother, freshman Danny Biega, with a pass. The younger Biega then slid the puck to Huxley at the blue line. The defenseman wound up and launched a slapshot that lasered its way through traffic and past Yale goalie Billy Blase.

Early in the third period, Killorn found the back of the net to even the score at two. The sophomore’s seventh goal of the season came off assists from senior Chad Morin and freshman Louis Leblanc, who leads the squad with 19 points and 10 goals.

“Basically in the second period and the beginning of the third we were playing the hockey we know how to play,” Killorn said. “We were putting it in their zone and working it in their own zone. We were outplaying them. We thought we had a good grasp of the game, [but] we seemed to get away from that in the third period.”

Despite Harvard’s surge, the Bulldogs snatched the momentum and blew open the game with three unanswered goals. Yale’s Brendan Mason gave his team a 3-2 lead, when a shot on the power play deflected off a Crimson defenseman and past Carroll. Tom Dignard’s high slapshot on a two-man advantage then extended the Eli lead. For Yale’s fifth goal, Broc Little put the game out of reach with an individual effort where he beat a Crimson blueliner down the ice and lofted a shot over the shoulder pad of Carroll.

“We battled back and brought it to 2-2,” Rogers said. “They got one there that was a lucky bounce, then we took more penalties, and it messed our flow up, and we couldn’t recover from there.”

With the score 5-2, sophomore blueliner Ryan Grimshaw tallied a goal—his first of the year—but the effort was too little, too late. After coming up short on a 6-on-3 power play, the Crimson conceded an empty-net goal at the end of regulation that sealed the game for the Elis.

Yale benefited from a balanced offensive attack, which featured goals by six different players. Bulldog Sean Backman paced the team with two assists and the final goal. Little also registered a multi-point game with a goal and an assist.

Yale finished with a 47-23 advantage in shots and converted on three power plays. Harvard, on the other hand, could only muster one score off seven Eli penalties.

A prominent trend for the Crimson this season has been its third-period struggles. These problems surfaced again against Yale, as Harvard conceded four goals in the final frame to its ECAC rival. The Crimson has been outscored, 36-20, in the final period this season.

With the win, Yale moves into a tie for first in the ECAC. Harvard now sits in eighth.

—Staff writer Jake I. Fisher can be reached at jifisher@fas.harvard.edu.