Men's Hockey Bounces Back with 6-3 Victory over Clarkson

Junior forward Jimmy Vesey left the ice with two goals, two assists, and a shattered stick. The Harvard men’s hockey team returned to its winning ways on Friday night, but it was not pretty.

Six days after a humbling loss to Yale in the Rivalry On Ice, the No. 4/4 Crimson (11-2-2, 7-1-2 ECAC) overcame miscues and bad bounces to defeat Clarkson (7-11-4, 4-4-2), 6-3, at the Bright-Landry Hockey Center.

“I liked our effort all night,” Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91 said. “I thought we had a lot more structure and a lot better effort certainly than last weekend.”

Four goals between Vesey and junior co-captain Kyle Criscuolo canceled out the Golden Knights’ opportunistic breakthroughs, which included a third period shorthanded goal after which Vesey snapped his stick against a goal post in disgust.

With the Crimson up two goals midway through the final frame, Vesey ran into a linesman at the Harvard blue line, losing the puck to freshman Clarkson center Brett Gervais, who forwarded it to junior line mate Pat Megannety for the shorthanded strike.

The man-down goal—Harvard’s first allowed this season—made the game 4-3 with 10:25 to play.

“At the time, that could have been a real momentum shift,” Vesey said. “I was a little bit frustrated with that.”

Yet the Crimson did not make many mistakes after that, responding six minutes later in a fashion that is becoming old hat: a Vesey-Criscuolo combination.

From behind the net, Vesey found Criscuolo at the left face-off circle, and the junior co-captain outraced a defender across the slot to regain the two-goal advantage for Harvard at 15:24.

Vesey later netted his career-best fourth point of the night with an empty net goal from his own blue line with nine seconds left. Through 15 games, the Hobey Baker nominee has already equaled his goal total (13) from last season.

“We [on the first line] kind of know where we’re going to be, so we’re almost a step ahead before [opposing defensemen] know where the puck’s going,” Criscuolo said. “It’s becoming more apparent that we are beating the defensemen to the pucks when we’re getting the pucks in the zone.”

Although Harvard’s stars headlined the night, the hosts received an important jolt from its supplementary talents, particularly in the second period.

The Crimson’s fourth line gave the team its first lead of the game at 13:28 in the middle frame. Freshman center Eddie Ellis forced a turnover and slid a backhand centering feed from behind the Clarkson goal line to sophomore line mate Phil Zielonka, who beat Golden Knight goaltender Ville Runola blocker side.

Less than three minutes later, third-line freshman forward Seb Lloyd extended Harvard’s lead to two, picking up a rebound off an outside shot from classmate Jake Horton.

The Crimson’s depth was key given the circumstances under which the team entered the game. Without the services of top defenseman Patrick McNally and sophomore centers Sean Malone and Alex Kerfoot, Harvard limped into Friday with its weakest lineup of the season.

The team compensated with important contributions from unlikely sources.

Ellis has seen ice time in all 15 games this season but had yet to score his first intercollegiate point until Friday. Donato praised the performance of sophomore defensemen Brayden Jaw and Victor Newell, who have been scratches at various points in the season.

“As much as we have some players that we count on to be productive offensively, I thought that we needed a good, solid team effort,” Donato said. “I thought that’s what we had tonight. I thought we had everybody going.”

Clarkson jumped out to a 2-1 lead in the first period.

Freshman winger Nic Pierog found the back of the net on the Golden Knight’s first shot on goal of the game, converting on a 3-on-2 power play rush at 7:27.

After Vesey redirected an outside shot from sophomore defenseman Clay Anderson to tie things up at 9:58, rookie center Sam Vigneault jammed home a rebound at the crease to give the visitors their second and final lead of the game at 18:05.

Criscuolo opened Harvard’s three-goal surge in the second period at 3:44, stickhandling around Runola after a thread-the-needle centering feed from sophomore line mate Tyler Moy.

“I thought we played well in the beginning of the game even though we came out of the first down one,” Criscuolo said. “We came into the locker room and basically said, ‘Keep doing what we’re doing.’”