NOTEBOOK: Power Play Problems Plague Men's Hockey in Loss to Yale

On a night where the Harvard men’s hockey team was looking for redemption, it instead found an ugly reminder of past troubles.

Looking to erase the memory of the team’s 5-1 loss at Madison Square Garden against Yale last month, the Crimson (9-13-4, 5-10-4 ECAC) was unable to skate with the Bulldogs (14-8-4, 9-7-3) for the duration of the game, losing control of the game in the second period and falling once again at the hands of its archrival, 5-2.

“We feel like if we’re rolling, we can eat up teams down low with our lines against any team in the country,” freshman forward Alexander Kerfoot said. “So that’s what we want to do. When we’re going, we’re going. Five-on-five, we can play with any team in the country, but we have got to bring it for sixty minutes of the game, and we didn’t have that tonight.”

Kerfoot’s power play goal with 15:29 left in the third frame sparked hope for Harvard, cutting the deficit down to two. But the Bulldogs’ three second-period goals in the span of 10 minutes proved too much for the Crimson to overcome.

MOMENTUM SWING

Harvard came into the matchup in Cambridge riding a four-game point streak and played the first period as such, generating several offensive chances in Yale’s defensive zone in the first 20 minutes of the game. A boarding penalty on the Bulldogs’ freshman forward John Hayden with the first period seconds from expiring seemed to swing momentum in the Crimson’s favor entering the second period.

But Harvard was unable to generate even one shot on the power play. Less than 90 seconds later, Yale found itself with a man advantage and was able to convert, giving the Bulldogs a lead that they would not surrender for the remaining of the contest.

“I just think that we didn’t play well enough,” Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91 said. “We had chances, two breakaways [that we didn’t convert]… Between those and the power plays, that was the difference.”

POWER PLAY PROBLEMS

The Crimson entered Friday’s matchup boasting a penalty kill rate of over 90%, leading the ECAC and qualifying as the seventh-best rate in the NCAA Division I. But Yale was able to shred the Harvard special teams play, converting three out of four chances. Harvard had only given up 14 power play goals on the entire season before Friday’s tilt.

With junior defenseman Patrick McNally out on the night with a shoulder injury, the Crimson was hard-pressed to stop Yale’s man-advantage attack, which seemed calm and collected during its opportunities.

Bulldog forward Stu Wilson he fired a shot—from a seemingly impossible angle just inches from the goal line—that managed to find its away past Harvard goaltender Steve Michalek’s pads and into the back of the net for the first goal of the game.

Captain forward Jesse Root and sophomore defenseman Ryan Obuchowski were also able to register goals in special teams play,

After the night, the Crimson fell to third in the ECAC in penalty kill rate and out of the top 10 in the nation.

Harvard also had success on the power play on the evening, scoring its two goals on the man advantage.

Freshman forward Luke Esposito was hooked rushing towards the net with puck, drawing a minor penalty. Then, Kerfoot was able to break past the Yale defense and put a shot on net, collect his rebound, and slip the puck past the Bulldogs’ Alex Lyon outstretched right pad to end Yale’s hopes of a shutout.

Sophomore forward Brian Hart’s power-play goal with less than five minutes remaining gave Harvard its second goal on four power play attempts on the night.

NATIONAL CHAMPIONS COMMEMORATED

On a night where the defending national champions stole the show, the 1989 Harvard men’s ice hockey team was commemorated during the first intermission for its own title run 25 years earlier, receiving a standing ovation from the crowd at the Bright-Landry Center.

The MVP of the Frozen Four that year was none other than current Harvard coach Donato, who scored twice in the national championship game against Minnesota to help lead his team to a 4-3 overtime victory.

“Its great to see them,” Donato said. “I think the bond you have from winning a national championship is extra special. I think everyone on that team would be quick to tell you that it was not only a great experience winning, but winning with those guys.”

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