Strong Defense Lifts Men's Hockey over St. Lawrence

Just one point out of fourth place coming into this weekend’s action, the final two games left of the regular season, the Harvard men’s hockey team had a shot to earn a first-round bye in the ECAC playoffs.

And the Crimson took an important step in making that goal a reality on Friday night, topping St. Lawrence, 4-1, at Bright Hockey Center.

Junior forward David Valek’s two goals sparked the Crimson attack while sophomore goaltender Raphael Girard had a standout night between the pipes, stopping 31 of the 32 Saints (13-17-3, 9-11-1 ECAC) shots.

“I don’t think it was the best executed game in a while, but I thought we really stepped up and made some plays when we had to,” Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91 said. “And obviously, our goaltending was the difference.

And with fourth-place Clarkson’s loss to Dartmouth, the Crimson (9-8-11, 7-5-9 ECAC) is now tied for third place and controls its own fate. A Colgate loss or a win or a tie Saturday against the Golden Knights would earn Harvard the coveted bye.

The victory also clinched home ice for the Crimson in its first round of playoff action.

Offensively, along with Valek, junior defenseman Danny Biega also tallied two points, though his came on two assists, the 21st and 22nd of the season for the blueliner.

On the defensive side, Girard turned in what was perhaps his best performance of the year, including a number of key saves on St. Lawrence power plays to keep the Crimson ahead.

“Raph was phenomenal,” Valek said. “It wasn’t just the [number of saves]; it was the types of saves. On the penalty kill, he was our biggest star of the game…. He couldn’t have done anything else to help us out.”

After Harvard committed 15 penalties in the team’s 7-1 loss to Yale six days prior, captain defenseman Ryan Grimshaw was whistled for contact to the head just 1:12 into the contest, earning a game misconduct.

Despite a flurry of St. Lawrence shots, the Crimson looked well on its way to killing the man advantage, but with just three seconds left on the five-minute power play, the Saints broke the deadlock. From the right circle, St. Lawrence’s Greg Carey found teammate Austin Riley, who knocked the shot past Girard to give the visiting St. Lawrence the early lead.

“I think we did a great job the first four minutes, 57 seconds,” Valek said. “Everybody was pumped up on the bench. Obviously, to kill off a five minute doesn’t happen often….Even though we gave up the goal, we got a lot of momentum off of that.”

That momentum paid dividends just 65 seconds later. Freshman defenseman Max Everson, from the right point, passed along the blue line to Biega. The junior launched the puck towards goal, and Valek tipped it past Saints netminder Matt Weninger for the equalizer.

“[After that goal], we felt, ‘Hey, we’ve already killed off a five-minute penalty, and we’ve been able to even up the game,’” Donato said. “And so we were able to right the ship a little bit.”

The Crimson continued to right the ship later in the period, striking again with 4:21 left. After a Saints defender nearly tipped it into his own goal, the puck fell right to senior forward Eric Krohus. The senior maneuvered past the goal line before depositing the puck in the back of the net, giving Harvard a lead it did not relinquish for the rest of the game.

Despite soundly outshooting the Crimson in the first frame, 13-8, the Saints failed to muster another score in the opening 20 minutes of action.

The same pattern emerged in the second period, as St. Lawrence’s 14 shots to Harvard’s eight once again put the Crimson on its heels. But the Harvard defense bent but did not break, helping Harvard preserve the tenuous lead entering the final period of play.

Girard was critical in keeping the visitors scoreless in the second, and the success helped feed into his confidence. At one point, after making a key stop, Girard took the puck and casually tossed it to an opposing player.

“I don’t do that all the time, but when things are going your way, it rattles them even more,” Girard said. “I’m not really cocky, but sometimes, when things are going your way, you might be pretty cocky. Patrick Roy was one of the cockiest goalies, and he was one of the best in history.”

In two of the Crimson’s previous four contests, one-goal leads vanished in the third period, turning wins into ties. But on Friday, Harvard bucked that trend as Valek scored his second of the night, beating Weninger 6:41 into the frame.

Coupled with a two-goal deficit, the Saints attack lost its edge in the final period, tallying just five shots in the final 20 minutes compared to Harvard’s 11.

“We started slow in the first and the second [periods],” Girard said. “The guys came out to play in the third. We came out to win instead of hanging on to the game.”

A Crimson goal on an empty Saints net with 34 seconds left on the clock sealed the Harvard victory.

—Staff writer Robert S. Samuels can be reached at robertsamuels@college.harvard.edu.