NOTEBOOK: Criscuolo Nets Two Goals as Harvard Falls

The Harvard men’s ice hockey team dug itself an early hole on Saturday that the team was unable to overcome.

Three opposing first period goals proved too much for the Crimson, as the squad fell to Colgate at the Bright-Landry Hockey Center, 4-2.

“[We] turned the puck over, took a couple of penalties,” Harvard coach Ted Donato said. “And it all led into them having an opportunity to really get skating and put us in our zone.”

Coming off a close loss to No. 12 Cornell on Friday, the Crimson (5-10-3, 2-8-3 ECAC) was unable to salvage its weekend slate with a win against the Raiders (11-9-3, 7-3-1). This weekend marks the second time this season that the Harvard has lost both home games in a single weekend.

Saturday was also the second consecutive night in which the Crimson trailed by one in the last minutes of the game, but was unable to tie the game and force overtime by pulling the goalie.

SLOW START

Despite scoring two goals in the last forty minutes compared to Colgate’s one, Harvard was never able to recover from the Raiders’ first period offensive attack.

Such a trend has been prevalent in recent play. In the Crimson’s past three games, the team has surrendered an average of two goals in the first period alone, while averaging less than two goals per game offensively in the same time frame. Furthermore, Saturday marked the fifth straight game in which Harvard has allowed the first goal of the game.

“We need to put a more complete game together,” Donato said. “I think it’s a good sign we battled back in the second and third… but playing from behind is not a recipe for success consistently.”

CRAFTY CRISCUOLO

After a slow first period, the Crimson offense emerged behind the performance of Kyle Criscuolo. The second year player notched two goals on the night to help pull Harvard within one in the waning seconds of the contest.

Both of Criscuolo’s goals came on the man advantage. Less than five minutes into the second period, freshman forward Luke Esposito fed the sophomore right in front of the goal, and Criscuolo promptly buried it into the net to reduce the deficit to two.

The sophomore forward’s second goal came with less than two minutes remaining in the game. With Colgate’s Daniel Gentzler in the penalty box for slashing, the Crimson pulled the goalie to give the squad a two-man advantage. Sophomore forward Jimmy Vesey put a shot on net, which Criscuolo deflected past goaltender Charlie Finn to cut the Raiders’ lead down to one.

“Luckily I was in the slot for both of [my goals],” Criscuolo said. “The second one was a great look by Vesey, coming down and looking off the defenders. The first one was a great pass by [Esposito].”

With his two goals on the night, Criscuolo is now tied for most goals on the team with ten. Hobey Baker nominee Jimmy Vesey has also found the net ten times on the season. The duo has notched four power play goals on the year apiece, also team-highs.

SOLID SPECIALITY TEAM PLAY

Harvard continued its strong performance on the penalty kill this season. The Crimson was able stave off the Raiders’ five opportunities on the night, twice in order to keep the team within striking distance.

Harvard ranks second in the ECAC with an 88.4 percent kill rate on the year. Only No. 5 Quinnipiac has had more success on the year with a rate of 90.2 percent.

The Crimson was also successful on the power play. The team converted on two of its five power plays on the night, a rate much higher than the team’s 15.8 percent rate on the entire year.

—Staff writer Kurt T. Bullard can be reached at kurtbullard@college.harvard.edu.