Clarkson Staves Off Men's Hockey, 2-1, in Potsdam

POTSDAM, N.Y. — On a sheet of paper, the Harvard men’s hockey team appeared to get exactly what it wanted Friday night. The No. 12/12 Crimson earned a first-round bye in the ECAC playoffs, locked up home ice for the tournament quarterfinals, and even moved up a spot in the playoff-predictive PairWise rankings.

But on a sheet of ice, specifically that of Cheel Arena in the heart of North Country, Harvard had far less to be happy about. Capitalizing on a pair of costly Crimson turnovers, Clarkson (17-13-3, 9-9-3 ECAC) built up a two-goal lead in the second period en route to a 2-1 victory over the visitors from Cambridge.

Harvard’s first score came with just 48 seconds remaining in regulation with sophomore goaltender Merrick Madsen on the bench in favor of an extra attacker. Junior center Alexander Kerfoot split the seam with a pass between two separate pairs of Golden Knights, allowing co-captain Kyle Criscuolo to lift a shot over the outstretched right pad of senior goaltender Greg Lewis on the back door.

Down a goal, the Crimson (15-9-4, 11-6-4) won the ensuing faceoff and successfully broke into the attacking zone, allowing Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91 to put a sixth skater on the ice yet again, but the Crimson’s final shot—a blast from senior Colin Blackwell—sailed well wide, enabling Clarkson to hang on to its second victory over Harvard this season.

Despite waiting until the final minute to score, the Crimson had more than its fair share of scoring opportunities, firing 22 shots over the final two periods and generating three power plays—including a minute-long 5-on-3 at the end of the middle frame. But the puck simply was not finding the net.

A lead pass in transition from co-captain Kyle Criscuolo to junior defenseman Clay Anderson darting through the slot marked one of Harvard’s best chances of the night near the end of the second period. However, senior forward Pat Megannety brought down the unlikely attacker atop the goalmouth, forcing his shot to go off target.

Senior goaltender Greg Lewis made 28 saves in Clarkson's 2-1 win over the Crimson. By Jake Meagher

The trip of Anderson turned a Crimson power play into a two-man advantage, on which Harvard forced plenty of bouncing pucks in front of Lewis. But the netminder would not be beaten. The Crimson’s power-play unit, which had scored in three consecutive games, was held 0-for-3 on the night.

“It felt like we had eight to 10 chances...to finish some pucks off,” Donato said. “I think we easily could have had four or five goals tonight. It’s frustrating because we really have to bear down and finish some of those chances.”

After a slow start for both teams, the Golden Knights presented two of the game’s biggest threats in the final moments of the first period. Moments after sophomore scoring threat Sam Vigneault nearly stuffed home a feed from senior Jeff DiNallo on the doorstep, the third member of their line—junior Troy Josephs—missed the netting by a matter of inches, ringing iron off a slap-pass from senior defenseman Kevin Tansey.

But after coming up just short in the final minute of the opening frame, Clarkson’s second line pounced in the first minute of the second.

Stepping in front of Kerfoot as he tried to break out of his own zone, Josephs forced the puck off the center’s stick at the Harvard blue line. DiNallo stepped in to collect the puck, moved to the top of the right faceoff circle, and ripped a wrister past Madsen to put the Golden Knights in front.

Clarkson's Ben Dalpe (9) scored the game-winning goal in the second period on Friday. By Jake Meagher

Then with five minutes remaining in the same frame, Clarkson upped its advantage to two. After an attempted pass from senior defenseman Brayden Jaw found the stick of freshman blue-liner Aaron Thow, the rookie led sophomore center Ben Dalpe forward in transition.

Dalpe entered the Crimson zone with the puck, but immediately dished it off to junior forward Perry D’Arrisso, who lofted a wrister on net from about the same spot as DiNallo 15 minutes prior. Madsen made the initial stop, but crashing the net and forcing the loose puck through was Dalpe, finishing off a shot that Donato said “really shouldn’t result in a goal, quite frankly.”

The 2-0 scoreline would hold well into the third period, even through a Harvard power play 2:22 into the frame which saw the Crimson’s leading scorer, co-captain Jimmy Vesey, get a look at a half-vacant net from the slot. Nonetheless, Lewis would be bailed out, as a Golden Knight stick entered Vesey’s shooting lane just in time to thwart the chance.

Harvard defenseman Clay Anderson drew a five-minute major penalty and a game misconduct for his hit that sent Christian Powers (18) crashing into the boards. By Jake Meagher

Harvard watched its comeback prospects grow even more grim with 7:05 remaining in regulation when Anderson knocked senior Christian Powers into the boards on a hit that drew a five-minute major for boarding and a game misconduct from the officials.

Madsen made four saves on the ensuing power play, and the Crimson completed its fifth successful kill of the night, but by the time sophomore Eddie Ellis—serving Anderson’s five-minute penalty—left the box, Harvard had just 2:05 to work with.

Criscuolo’s 18th goal of the season would pull the Crimson a little closer, but Clarkson held on for the final 48 seconds to improve its home record to 12-2-2 and wrap up home ice in the first round of the ECAC playoffs.

Meanwhile, Harvard managed to clinch a first-round bye by way of Rensselaer’s 2-0 loss to Colgate on Friday. But the Crimson was in no mood for celebrating.

“We want to win hockey games at the end of the day—that’s our goal,” Kerfoot said. “We’re not looking to sneak in through the back door.”

“We’ve got to take care of our own game,” Donato said. “It’s about us playing as well as we can play, not about worrying about this, that, or the other thing that might happen. We have to be in control of our game and really play with an intensity that’s necessary this time of year.”

—Staff writer Jake Meagher can be reached at jake.meagher@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @MeagherTHC.