Men's Hockey Routed by Last-Place Clarkson

Luke Esposito and Colin Blackwell tapped their goaltender’s pads in consolation. After yielding two goals in 10 seconds to ECAC Hockey’s conference cellar dwellers, Merrick Madsen and his teammates had a right to be stunned.

At 7:08 and 7:18 of the third period, Clarkson’s Nic Pierog and Pat Megannety scored just moments apart to cap an emphatic 5-1 victory on Saturday night at the Bright-Landry Hockey Center, handing the No. 7/8 Harvard men’s hockey team (9-4-3, 5-3-3 ECAC) its first loss to an unranked opponent in the process.

Madsen, who started the game on the bench, was a late participant in Saturday’s surprising rout. If there was ever a time to give his freshman counterpart, Michael Lackey, another try in net, it was Saturday at home against the Golden Knights (10-10-2, 2-6-2 ECAC), a team that had entered the weekend with one win and an 0-for-29 power play against conference opponents.

Yet three straight Clarkson goals—two on the man advantage—sent Lackey to the bench and left the hosts outmatched after the game’s first 30 minutes. Save a brief Harvard push in the third period highlighted by co-captain Kyle Criscuolo’s 12th goal of the season, the Golden Knights maintained control wire-to-wire in an effort that might signal a second-half resurgence for a team that struggled with injuries to start the year.

“We felt pretty good,” Clarkson coach Casey Jones said. “We were playing our style of game; we were making it hard for them to get to the net, and we were blocking a lot of shots and jamming a lot of shots.”

On the bench opposite Jones, there wasn't too much to feel good about. A night after co-captain Jimmy Vesey’s third period hat trick heroics, the Crimson managed only 22 shots on goal en route to their worst goal-differential of 2015-2016. Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91 did not spare criticism for any part of his team, which has now lost three of its last four.

“There wasn’t anything really that we did tonight that was acceptable or that would have allowed us to be competitive in that game, whether it was the basics of just one on one battles and compete level and work ethic or…actual special teams and goaltending and defensive zone coverage,” Donato said.

Skating at even strength, junior forward A.J. Fossen connected on a rebound for Clarkson’s first goal at 5:18 in the first period. Sophomore Golden Knights center Ben Dalpe sent a low slapshot in transition onto Lackey, who kicked it out to an unmarked Fossen in the low right slot.

Two more Clarkson slapshots eluded Lackey on the penalty kill in the second period.

After drawing a hooking infraction on senior defenseman Desmond Bergin, sophomore Sam Vigneault pushed past a rebound off a blast from senior defenseman Kevin Tansey at 5:18 with 12 seconds left on the man advantage.

Minutes later with sophomore defenseman Wiley Sherman in the box for cross-checking, a slapper from Tansey beat Lackey cleanly to extend Clarkson’s lead to three at 9:35.

Lackey finished his night with 12 saves on 15 shots as Madsen replaced the freshman starter in net after Tansey’s goal, stopping all but two of the 19 shots he faced in relief.

Criscuolo cut into the visitors’ lead on a power play at 5:05 in the third period, tucking a feed from junior defenseman Clay Anderson around senior goaltender Greg Lewis in the low slot, but a one-two punch from Pierog and Megannety put the game out of reach shortly thereafter.

Pierog, a sophomore, broke up the right wing on a 2-on-1 before beating Madsen five-hole. Off the next face-off, Megannety created another 2-on-1 with junior forward Perry D’Arrisso and buried D’Arrisso’s rebound after Madsen kicked out the puck to his right.

“I give Clarkson credit, because I thought that they won all the foot races and they won all the battles, and we really just did not show up at the level of intensity that would have been necessary to win the game,” Donato said.

Harvard’s frustration showed in the game’s latter stages. Harvard junior Tyler Moy and Clarkson defenseman Bryan Sinz received 10-minute misconducts following an altercation at the Clarkson blue line with just over two minutes remaning. Later, an aggressive shot block attempt by Harvard freshman Ryan Donato led to roughing minors to Donato and Pierog and a 10-minute misconduct to Fossen at 19:53.

—Staff writer Michael D. Ledecky can be reached at michael.ledecky@thecrimson.com.