Harvard Men’s Ice Hockey Splits Weekend with Overtime Games Against Yale and Brown

The Harvard men’s ice hockey team (11-15-2, 9-10-2 ECAC) faced two close games this past weekend. The Crimson seized victory over its longtime rival, Yale (6-20-3, 5-14-3 ECAC), with a thrilling overtime goal but faltered against Brown (13-13-3, 9-11-2 ECAC), unable to perform during the shootout.

The two games marked the end to Harvard’s regular season as they look forward to playing on home ice March 7 in the first round of the ECAC playoffs.

The exciting final games reflected the team’s rocky performance throughout the season. Harvard head coach Ted Donato ’91 acknowledged the team’s ups and downs but ended the regular season with optimism.

“We’ve not been as consistent as we all would like,” he said. “I think our power play certainly has improved over the last six weeks or so and I think our penalty kill hasn’t so there’s some room for improvement there, but I think our understanding as a group as to how we need to have success is pretty clear now.”

Harvard 4, Yale 3

Harvard bested the Bulldogs in the first weekend game in overtime play, out-scoring the Bulldogs 4-3.

Heading into a full Yale crowd, Harvard started the night prepared to face its longtime rival and continue its win streak against the Bulldogs that extends back to 2018.

Donato explained this historic rivalry and the mentality the team had going into the big game.

“Well, I think there’s pressure in any game you play against Yale. Obviously the school is a big rival and we wanted to follow up a good win last Saturday night,” Donato said.

Freshman forward Mick Thompson started off the game strong for the Crimson, nabbing an early lead for Harvard by scoring the first goal of the period less than 5 minutes in, with assists from junior forwards Philip Tresca and Casey Severo.

With Yale sophomore forward Iisai Pesonen serving a penalty for holding, the Crimson entered a power play but failed to seize the opportunity of a goal.

Harvard bounced back soon enough, though, with freshman forward Will Hughes scoring his first career goal before the halfway point of the period.

As the second half of the first period progressed, both teams struggled to score.

With less than three minutes left in the period, sophomore forward Michael Callow served a penalty for holding. With the Bulldogs’ power play taking up the rest of the period, freshman Micah Berger scored Yale’s first goal..

Yale struck back almost as quickly as Harvard had in the previous period, scoring off a long pass up ice from its own zone while on the power play.

Freshman Yale defenseman Joe Blackley took the puck off the face-off and passed it to junior forward David Chen who pressed junior Crimson netminder Aku Koskenvuo on the breakaway, slipping the puck past him on a forehand-backhand deke.

In an interview after the weekend of games, Severo spelled out what goes into these impressive power-play goals.

“Just a lot of communication. We practiced it a lot in practice, kind of a repetition,” Severo said. “We tried to execute the same game plan and kind of have an idea of what’s going to happen. So it’s just about being on the same page and communicating with each other and executing when it matters.”

A couple put-back attempts coming halfway through the second period were defended well by Bulldog sophomore goaltender Jack Stark against shots by Tresca and Severo from the point.

Later period opportunities for Harvard also came away scoreless, including a short-ice four-on-two break and several loose pucks played just in front of Stark.

Coming back on the ice for the final period, the Crimson hoped it could bring back the early energy it had that gave it the 2-0 lead in the first period.

However, a tripping minor against Callow — his second penalty of the night — gave Yale the break it needed with just 12 minutes to go in the contest.

Bulldog defenseman Connor Sullivan made a pass to Chen along the blue line. Chen then passed it back, giving Sullivan a clear shooting lane for Yale’s second power-play goal.

Two more penalties against Harvard — though one was merely an offsetting penalty — put the team in a difficult position as it neared the final five minutes.

Yet moments after four-on-four play concluded, a costly tripping call was taken by Yale, which Crimson junior defenseman Ryan Healey capitalized on in the early seconds of the power play for a one-timer goal off a cross-ice pass from Thompson.

The tide having shifted, the Bulldogs found themselves on their backfoot. The game went back to four-on-four play before Yale’s Chen took a 5-minute major and game misconduct for a hit to the back.

Unable to score in the final minutes, Harvard would still have the momentum in the form of nearly two-minutes of power-play time entering the OT period.

Just 31 seconds into OT, Severo took the rebound off his defenseman’s shot and flipped it back around and on Stark for the game-winning goal.

“It was just something we drew up,” Severo said. “We had another four-on-three goal to tie the game up late in the third so we had a plan going out there and we were able to execute and just be able to slip one past and be able to win that game in overtime.”

When asked about his high-scoring season — in which he has amassed a team-best 14 goals — Severo explained what goes into his performance.

“It’s just going to the net and being opportunistic and capitalizing on the chances,” Severo said. “Obviously, a lot of credit goes out to Joe Miller and Mick Thompson, who I spend a lot of the year playing with. They’ve been able to find me, and I’ve been able to put them back on the net.”

Harvard 3, Brown 4

As the regular season came to a close, Harvard faltered against the Bears during a tense shootout.

Coming off of two close wins, Harvard entered a sparse crowd to finish off their regular season with a game against Brown University.

Healey started off the Crimson strong as he scored his fifteenth career goal with a pass from tri-captain forward Zakary Karpa. Not even three minutes into the game, the Crimson grasped the lead.

As the Bears struggled to score a goal past freshman goaltender Ben Charette in the start of the game, senior defenseman Kyle Aucoin advanced Harvard’s lead as he drove the puck past the blue line, scoring the second goal of the period.

The end of the period turned into a four-on-four as Harvard’s sophomore forward Salvatore Guzzo and Brown’s freshman forward Charlie Gollob entered the penalty box.

With 37 seconds left on the four-on-four, Tresca received the puck from behind the goal post from sophomore forward Ben MacDonald and shot the puck to bring the Crimson to a three-point lead.

The Bears soon fought back with less than one minute left in the period as junior forward Ryan St. Louis.

With the Crimson leading 3-1 as the first period came to a close, chants from the Bears’ home crowd filled Meehan Auditorium as the second began.

Brown’s face-off and shots-on-goal count continued to rise, but the Bears struggled to seize a goal as Charette blocked any attempts made in the second period.

As Healey served a penalty for holding, Brown entered a two-minute power play as the second period progressed. However, Brown’s power-play advantage did not last long as Brown’s sophomore forward, Max Scott, entered the box for tripping.

Harvard soon entered its own opportunistic power play as senior forward Brendan Clark faced a minor penalty for holding. The score, however, remained unchanged as the power play ended and the second period’s clock ran out.

With the Crimson leading 3-1, the final period of the regular season began. Both teams had notable shots, but none of them translated into a goal in the first quarter of the period.

With the score looking stable, tri-captain defenseman Ian Moore faced a minor penalty, handing the Bears a two-minute power play. The Bears seized this opportunity as the puck was handled by sophomore forward Tyler Kopff, passed to St. Louis, then back to Kopff as he shot it into the net.

As the halfway mark of the period passed, Brown sophomore forward Mike Cataldo faced a face-off violation, giving the Crimson another power-play period. With 25 seconds left in the power play, Harvard faced an even greater two-player advantage as Brown’s junior forward Ryan Shostak got marked for cross-checking.

This two-player advantage came to a premature end, however, with Tresca serving a minor penalty for slashing. The game now presented a four-on-four match, and then soon after, a 25-second power play period for the Bears as Tresca finished his time in the penalty box.

With the chaos of players switching in and out, the puck slid across the ice vigorously, but neither team was able to change the scoreboard.

With less than five minutes left in the game, Harvard’s junior forward Marek Hejduk faced a minor for boarding — and Brown finally utilized the power play to their advantage.

To tie the game in the final quarter, Brown sophomore forward Tyler Kopff scored a goal after passing the puck back and forth a couple times to St. Louis.

The auditorium filled with excitement as that goal put an end to regulation, making the teams enter OT.

Donato expressed disappointment that after leading for most of the game, Harvard was forced into OT.

“If we executed the way I think we all would’ve liked, we wouldn’t have made it to overtime,” Donato said.

He continued to reflect on the performance that led the Crimson to such a tight game.

“It’s about executing in the third period and part of that is discipline,” he said. “I don’t think we had the discipline to stay out of the box.”

The Crimson was soon faced with a three-on-three.

With less than a minute left on the overtime clock, Harvard entered a crucial power play as freshman forward Ivan Zadvernyuk faced a penalty for hooking. However, the power play was not enough for the Crimson to grasp the final win of the regular season.

With that, a thrilling shootout began.

Thompson started the shootout but was unable to shoot the puck into the net despite his impressive rookie season.

As the home crowd tensed up, Brown’s Kopff did not disappoint as he scored for the Bears.

Faced with pressure, Harvard’s sophomore forward Cam Johnson then came onto the ice and also missed for the Crimson.

To put a victorious end to Brown’s senior night, Scott claimed the final goal for Brown as he shot the puck into the net.

Despite the loss, the Crimson looks forward to a home game to start off the ECAC playoffs.

Donato reflected on the team’s performance throughout the regular season, anticipating a similar performance in the ECAC games.

“We’ve seen a lot of the younger players get more comfortable with the level of play,” he said. “I think both goal tenants have shown flashes of some really good hockey.”

Harvard now looks forward to the first round of the ECAC playoffs on March 7, playing on home ice.

—Staff writer Nate M. Bolan can be reached at nathan.bolan@thecrimson.com.