Power Play Defense Helps Men's Hockey Down BU

Last season, the Harvard and Boston University men’s hockey teams met twice, combining to score 11 goals each time. In their first tilt of the new year Saturday night, the two teams proved that this would not be a trend left behind in 2013.

In front of a packed crowd at the Bright-Landry Hockey Center, the Crimson (5-7-2, 2-6-2 ECAC) lit the lamp a season-high seven times, skating to a 7-4 victory over the visiting Terriers (7-9-2, 2-4-1 Hockey East).

Despite the Harvard offense dominating the stat sheet, the Crimson needed its penalty-killing unit to seal the victory.

With Harvard leading 5-4 and 4:47 left in the contest, a hit from behind by defenseman Dan Ford on BU’s Jake Moscatel resulted in a five-minute major penalty, leaving the Crimson shorthanded for the remainder of regulation.

The Terriers had converted each of their previous three power play opportunities, but Harvard held its ground in the final minutes. The Crimson prevented BU from putting a single shot on net over the course of the man advantage, blocking seven shots during that span.

“I didn’t think we folded,” said Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91. “I thought we really pulled together and found a way to really battle. I like the way we responded for the last five minutes there.”

And the Crimson did more than just kill the final penalty. With less than two minutes remaining, a deflection off the skate of a BU defenseman in the Harvard zone sent the puck flying towards freshman forward Sean Malone. Starting at his own blue line, the freshman carried the puck in on Terrier goaltender Sean Maguire and put home a backhander on the breakaway.

Just one minute later, Malone added another shorthanded goal, clearing the puck out of his own end and into an empty BU net, capping the 7-4 victory.

The performance by the Crimson penalty-killing unit in the closing minutes marked a sharp turnaround from the beginning of the period. Carrying a 5-2 lead into the final frame, Harvard allowed the Terriers to climb back into the game by committing penalties.

With 14:03 left to play, BU forward Danny O’Regan knocked a rebound past Crimson goaltender Raphael Girard on the power play to cut the deficit to 5-3. The Terriers capitalized once again on its next power play eight minutes later when defenseman Ahti Oksanen ripped a shot past Girard from the top of the right circle, bringing BU within one.

Harvard also had its share of opportunities on the power play, with the Terriers putting the home team on the man advantage eight times. The Crimson generated several chances but could not put the game away, failing to score on six power plays.

“We had some good looks [on the power play], but I thought we could have moved the puck around a little bit better,” Donato said. “We had a lot of mishandling of passes, and [we] just weren’t as sharp as we were earlier in the game.”

This sharpness early on aforementioned by Donato led Harvard freshman Phil Zielonka to have the best game of his career. The forward earned both of Harvard’s power play goals on the night, marking his first two collegiate scores.

“It feels great,” Zielonka said. “It was a tough start [this season] personally for me, but I knew it would come sooner or later. Coach [Donato] gave me an opportunity to play with [some] great players.”

Zielonka notched his first goal at the 12:19 mark of the first period. With the score tied at one, Harvard defenseman Patrick McNally fired a pass to forward Alexander Kerfoot at the bottom of the right circle, who sent a touch pass to Zielonka. The freshman ripped a shot past then-BU goaltender Matt O’Connor to put the Crimson on top.

He struck again in the second period, redirecting a slapshot from defenseman Victor Newell, who also scored his first collegiate goal Saturday, past O’Connor for Harvard’s fourth goal of the night, provoking a goaltending change by the visitors.

Rounding out the goal scorers for the Crimson were David Valek and Jimmy Vesey. After the Terriers had taken the lead just 47 seconds into the game on a goal from Cason Hohmann, Valek responded at 7:39 with his first score of the 2013-14 campaign. On the other end of the spectrum, Vesey earned his team-leading ninth goal of the season.

The win for Harvard marks the team’s third consecutive triumph over BU after picking up a 6-5 overtime win and a 7-4 win in the Beanpot Tournament against the Terriers last season.

“We had this game on our calendar for a long time, and everyone was really pumped for this one,” Zielonka said. “So to get the win is huge, and hopefully we can build off this.”

—Staff writer Jake Meagher can be reached at jmeagher@college.harvard.edu.