Harvard Hockey Kicks Off Season By Splitting Two Preseason Games

This weekend, the Harvard men’s hockey team faced off against the United States National Team Development Program’s U-18 team (USNTDP), and No. 3 Boston University (3-0-0, 1-0-0 HEA) in a pair of preseason matchups. The Crimson put on an impressive performance, winning the first contest and tying the second, only losing in a shootout to the Terriers.

If nothing else, the weekend serves as an omen for a promising season ahead for Harvard, which is looking to make a strong comeback after its season was cut short in the second round of the ECAC playoffs last season.

Harvard 5, USNDTP 4

Harvard began its first preseason game with a hot start, maintaining pressure in the offensive zone and transitioning out of its defensive zone well, wasting little time in the process. The fast-paced play yielded an early reward, with a high-sticking penalty on USNTDP forward Rian Chudzinski giving the Crimson its first power play of the game. While Harvard gave itself many scoring chances, it was nevertheless unable to come up with a goal with the man advantage.

The momentum changed when, less than a minute after the penalty expired, a stretch pass from the Crimson’s defensive zone from sophomore defenseman Matthew Morden found the stick of senior forward Alex Gaffney, who entered the zone on a breakaway and tucked one under the goalie’s left arm to give Harvard an early 1-0 lead.

As the period carried on, the Crimson was able to maintain its pressure on its opponents well, limiting the number of shots faced by junior goalie Aku Koskenvuo, winning races to loose pucks, and delivering a fair amount of heavy hits.

However, in the final quarter of the period, USNTDP forward Will Horcoff received a pass from defenseman Donny Bracco for an open shot at Koskenvuo. While Harvard’s goalie made the initial stop, the rebound ricocheted up in the air and the Finn lost sight of it, and NTDP forward Will Belle was waiting to bat the puck into a wide open net, tying the game 1-1.

The U-18 team capitalized on its newfound momentum. Minutes later, following a faceoff in the Crimson’s defensive zone, a USNTDP faceoff win found the stick of forward Will Moore, who fired it over the right shoulder of Koskenvuo, giving USNTDP a 2-1 lead as time in the period expired. What had started out as a smothering performance for Harvard seemed to be quickly falling apart.

Harvard was given another chance at a power play early in the second period, following an interference call on USNTDP defenseman Asher Barnett. Despite the opportunity, a stolen pass resulted in a breakaway for USNTDP forward Conrad Fondrk, who slipped one through Koskenvuo’s five hole, extending the lead to 3-1. Just after the goal, sophomore forward Michael Callow received a slashing call, bringing the play to 4-on-4. Neither team was able to score for the remainder of these penalties.

Despite the scoresheet, Harvard was able to generate a high amount of offensive pressure through two periods, In fact, at the conclusion of the second period, the Crimson was outshooting USNTDP 31 to 15, just over a 2:1 ratio. Some unlucky bounces, paired with some stellar saves from NTDP goalie Patrick Quinlan, left Harvard scoreless in the second, but it looked to make a statement in the third.

The Crimson received another early gift just two minutes into the third period, when USNTDP forward Landon Hafele earned a tripping penalty. Harvard was unable to come up with a power play goal yet again, but remained hungry.

A few minutes later, after collecting a pass from Michael Callow, freshman forward Mick Thompson slid one beneath the pads of Quinlan after pulling off a nifty deke in the slot, cutting the score to 3-2.

The Crimson carried the momentum of Thompson’s goal through the rest of the game. A mere four minutes later, after a strong passing game in the offensive zone, freshman defenseman Lucas St. Louis slid the puck diagonally across the zone, where sophomore forward Cam Johnson was waiting to take a one-time slapshot to tie the game.

Soon after, a pass from sophomore forward Ryan Fine to the point found the stick of junior defenseman Kyle Aucoin, who took a low shot that went just above Quinlan’s right pad, giving Harvard the lead at 4-3.

This lead didn’t last long, however, when, just two minutes later, NTDP forward Jacob Kvasnicka scored an unassisted goal to tie the game.

As the minutes ticked away, and it seemed that the game would go into overtime, a pass from freshman defensemen Lucas St. Louis found freshman Justin Solovey, who netted the puck. The rookie-to-rookie connection delivered the final blow for the Crimson in a topsy-turvy exhibition game.

Finishing its first preseason game with a win, the Crimson looked to carry this momentum into its game the next day against BU.

Harvard 2, Boston University 2

Despite the challenge of playing such a highly-ranked team, the Crimson did not stand down early in the game, outshooting the Terriers 11-6 in the first period. Two power play opportunities also created a lot of offense for Harvard, but it was unable to come up with a goal on either occasion. The teams headed back to their locker rooms scoreless at the end of the first period.

The Crimson wasted no time generating offense in the second period, when Ryan Fine disrupted the possession of BU freshman Cole Hutson. The puck was picked up by senior captain Zakary Karpa, who slid the puck to Solovey, with the puck then finding the back of the net to give Harvard its first lead of the game, 1-0.

As the period waned on, it seemed that no more goals were going to be scored. But with less than two minutes to go, Terrier forward Quinn Hutson received a hooking penalty. In the following power play, after a flurry of passes, St. Louis received a pass from Thompson and fired a one-time shot along the ice, which caromed off the pad of BU goalie Max Lacroix and into the net, extending the Crimson’s lead to two.

With just eight seconds remaining in the period, Solovey received a roughing call, giving the Terriers their first power play of the game.

BU wasted no time in capitalizing on this opportunity, as it took them less than the eight seconds remaining in the period to score its their first goal. Following a faceoff, Terrier forward Matt Coponi passed the puck up and through the slot to Quinn Hutson, who blasted a shot above the pad of Koskenvuo with just a tenth of a second of time left on the clock, bringing the score to 2-1 as the second period closed.

Both teams had several chances to score at the start of the third period, with each getting a chance on the power play, though neither was able to deliver.

Just past the halfway point of the period, a stretch pass found the stick of BU forward Jack Hughes, who had split the Harvard defensemen, and he carried it in on a breakaway and slid it through Koskenvuo’s five hole, tying the game at two.

Neither team was able to find the back of the net for the rest of the period, and the game extended to overtime.

The Terriers held possession of the puck for a majority of the overtime period, but a combination of strong defense and some clutch saves by Koskenvuo kept the score tied and the game extended to a shootout.

Despite a first-round goal by Gaffney, the Crimson was unable to score in the next four rounds of the shootout. BU was able to find two goals in the third and fifth rounds, giving it the win over Harvard.

The two preseason games were essentially mirrors of each other — with the Crimson erasing a deficit against USNTDP and then ceding the lead versus BU — and both delivered lessons for the squad going forward into the start of the regular season next week. For instance, the Crimson will need to be better in man-up situations (netting zero goals on the power-play in the first game and just one in the second) against its upcoming ECAC competitors.

Overall, this weekend proved very successful for the Crimson, which begins its regular season at 7:00 pm on Nov. 1 against Dartmouth at the Bright-Landry Hockey Center. The season-opener will also be streamed live on ESPN+.

—Staff writer Owen Butler can be reached at owen.butler@thecrimson.com.