Defense Stands Strong in Harvard Season-Opening Win

In his return to the Crimson crease after a year-long leave of absence, junior Kyle Richter made 41 saves to anchor Harvard’s defensive efforts in the team’s season-opening 5-3 win over Dartmouth on Friday night at Thompson Arena.

“Obviously it was a very exciting to get back into the game,” Richter said. “I didn’t really play that much last year game-wise, so to get back into it, and Dartmouth has a great atmosphere, it was a good game, and the team played great winning on the road.”

The Crimson’s victory last night came after skating to a 3-3 tie with McGill in its exhibition game last weekend. The Big Green also played the Redmen in an exhibition last week and suffered a 7-4 loss.

“We know Dartmouth has a traditionally very fast and physical team,” co-captain Alex Biega said. “They definitely bring an up-tempo style of play to the game, and we just wanted to go out there and execute our game plan, which I think we did.”

On Friday, sophomore forward Alex Killorn led the Crimson in points with two goals and an assist in the second frame. Freshmen forwards Louis Leblanc and Marshall Everson along with sophomore forward Daniel Moriarty each contributed a goal and an assist as well.

After a dominant first period during which Harvard held a 13-5 shot advantage, Dartmouth rallied its offense to overwhelm the Crimson blue line by a margin of 24 shots through the second and third frames.

“Obviously, Kyle Richter had an unbelievable game,” Killorn said. “He kept us in the game, and he made some unbelievable saves. They had more shots on net, but I think we had about the same number of great scoring opportunities. We had a lot of great shots that missed the net.”

Despite Harvard’s offensive dominance during the first frame, the Crimson simply could not find the back of the net. Big Green goalie sophomore Jody O’Neill gloved senior forward Doug Rogers’ one-timer at net early in the first period to rid Harvard of its best scoring opportunity of the frame. Dartmouth then turned the tables on the Crimson after that, taking a 1-0 lead at 2:43 thanks to a tally from senior forward Rob Smith.

Harvard quickly turned things around during the second period. Skating down the right side towards the goal, Killorn received a pass from junior forward Mike Biega before shooting it over the goalie’s right shoulder to tie the game at a goal apiece just over a minute in.

Killorn scored his second of the night off a power play when the puck popped up between him and an open net to give the Crimson the lead at 12:40 in the second.

Less than three minutes later, Leblanc scored his first career goal off an exchange with Killorn that also came during a power play opportunity. The rookie blasted the puck over O’Neill’s shoulder and into the net.

“We knew coming into this year we would have a lot of freshman forwards and a lot of them were high profile players,” Killorn said. “[Leblanc’s] been playing really well and has been living up to all the hype.”

Harvard carried its scoring momentum into the third period, with Everson and Moriarty coming up with goals just two minutes apart about halfway through the frame.

But the Big Green wasn’t finished with the Crimson quite yet. Dartmouth put up a big offensive challenge late in the third, outshooting Harvard eight to one and scoring twice over the course of two minutes. The Big Green’s junior forward Adam Estoclet scored off a power play at 11:07, and senior forward Joe Gaudet made the score line 5-3 at 13:31 in the third.

But despite continued offensive pressure from Dartmouth through the rest of the period, Richter and the Crimson blue line came up with big saves to preserve the win.

“Dartmouth seemed to get some more energy behind them,” Richter said. “We got a few penalties, which allowed them to set up in our zone. They had a lot of shots, but our defense was good, making sure I could save all the shots.”

Harvard will be on the road again next weekend, taking on Colgate on Friday before a highly anticipated matchup with Cornell on Saturday night.

“It’s never an easy game against those guys,” Richter said. “Their fans are really into it so it gives them a boost for sure and they always give us a good game, so we’re looking forward to it. We want to build on Friday’s game and keep fine-tuning our team game.”

—Staff writer Lucy D. Chen can be reached at lucychen@fas.harvard.edu.