Men's Hockey Holds Off Princeton, 4-1, in Final Bout Before Beanpot

The last time the Harvard and Princeton men’s hockey teams clashed, Jimmy Vesey provided the Crimson with the only goal it would need in a shutout of the Tigers at Hobey Baker Memorial Rink.

In the rematch Friday night at the Bright-Landry Hockey Center, Vesey may not have struck first, but he did strike last.

After being given limited room to roam all night long, Vesey finally found an open lane with less than eight minutes remaining following a “panic play,” as Princeton coach Ron Fogarty called it, on the part of the Tigers. With No. 7/7 Harvard hanging onto a 2-1 edge, the co-captain broke free along the right wing, fed junior forward Alexander Kerfoot in the slot, and continued marching forward.

Threading the needle between two defenseman, Kerfoot immediately returned the puck back to the Crimson’s sharp-shooter, and Vesey did not disappoint. Standing 10 feet from goaltender Colton Phinney, the co-captain rocketed a one-timer past the glove of the Princeton junior to double Harvard’s lead. Seven minutes later, the ECAC’s leading point-getter put one more into the back of an empty net, capping a 4-1 victory over the visiting Tigers (5-13-2, 3-8-2 ECAC).

“We knew coming in it would be a tough game,” Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91 said. “We expected it to be a one-goal game, and for the most part, that’s what it was. In the third period, we were able to make a couple plays and found a way to win the game.”

For the second time in as many meetings, the final score was hardly indicative of the play between the two sides. Much like their first bout on Nov. 14 when a 1-0 affair was masked by two Crimson empty-netters in the final minute of play, Friday night’s contest was tight just about all of the way through.

In fact, the Allston rematch followed a similar blueprint as the matchup that took place two months prior—Harvard (12-4-3, 8-3-3) dominated the first period, and the Tigers sprung to life in the second.

The Crimson caught a break just moments after puck drop as Tiger forward Ryan Siiro provided the Harvard power play—ranked second in the country for its 32 percent scoring clip—an opportunity to take the ice just 25 seconds in.

On the man advantage, junior defenseman Clay Anderson launched a shot from atop the left circle that Phinney kicked into the slot. Junior forward Sean Malone then collected the rebound, drifted to his left to avoid defenseman Hayden Anderson, and lifted the puck over the netminder’s right pad to put the hosts on the scoreboard at 1:56.

Meanwhile, the Princeton offense could get nothing going.

Skating without Victor Newell and Jake Olson—two of its six usual starting defensemen, Harvard held the Tigers without a shot on goal for 12 consecutive minutes during the opening period. Princeton would finish the frame with just five attempts.

Meanwhile, the Harvard attack, which early on was held in check at even strength, began creating more opportunities as the period went on. But Phinney, who stopped 39 of 40 shots in the teams’ last meeting, made 12 saves in the stanza to keep his side within one.

Unlike the November meeting, however, the Crimson beat Phinney a second time in the middle frame, as junior center Tyler Moy upped Harvard’s lead to two at the 5:40 mark—all thanks to a turnover.

“I kind of got a gift,” Moy admitted. “I just tried to make the most of it.”

Looking to break out of his own zone, top-pair defenseman Joe Grabowski pushed the puck up-ice, but Moy intercepted the pass and flew back into the Tiger end. Stepping around one defenseman and moving left to right on Phinney, the third-liner nudged the puck between the post and the goaltender’s outstretched pad, pushing the score to 2-0.

Outside of the one lapse, however, Princeton played its best hockey in the middle frame. The Tigers more than tripled their first-period shot total in the period, sending 18 shots in the direction of Harvard goaltender Merrick Madsen, who stopped all but one of them—a Tommy Davis rip from the right faceoff dot at 9:04.

Princeton nearly equalized at two with just over a minute to go in the frame, as Siiro—down on his knees with his back to Madsen in the slot—flung a backhander on target that Madsen knocked in the direction of junior center Garrett Skrbich, open on the post. But protecting his net, the sophomore goaltender—who finished with 33 saves—sprawled across the crease to keep the puck out.

Vesey’s two third-period goals, his 15th and 16th of the season, closed out the win, allowing the Crimson to maintain its one-point edge over Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for second place in the ECAC standings.

“It’s a big two points in the Ivy League [and a] big two points in our league standings, especially with us only having the opportunity for two this weekend and most teams in our league having a chance to get four,” Donato said.

“And quite frankly,” he added, “I think there’s probably a little bit of relief as soon as the game’s over. We can start to focus on the Beanpot and Monday night, which I think the guys are very excited about.”

—Staff writer Jake Meagher can be reached at jake.meagher@thecrimson.com.