Esposito's Late Equalizer Earns M. Hockey 1-1 Draw With Yale

Up until 9 p.m., the only goal siren that echoed throughout the Bright-Landry Hockey Center on Saturday was the result of a miscalculation.

Midway through the second period of the season’s first Harvard-Yale men’s hockey installment, senior forward Luke Esposito went tumbling into Bulldog goaltender Patrick Spano, knocking the puck off the pipe, then perhaps over the line beneath the two adversaries who had fallen into the cage.

The referees immediately, and rightfully, signaled no goal on the Esposito try, but that didn’t stop the sound operator from hitting the horn. Little did the 3,095 in attendance know, the erroneous siren was simply foreshadowing what was to come.

After the visiting Bulldogs (8-7-4, 4-5-3 ECAC) snapped a 56-minute stalemate off a tip-in from sophomore Ted Hart, Esposito retaliated with his second lamp-lighter of the evening just 1:09 later. And this one would count.

Just before falling over the stick of defenseman Henry Hart, senior Sean Malone threaded a pass from the right faceoff circle to the wide-open Esposito, who slipped to the far post while four Yale skaters had their eyes glued to Malone. The senior from Greenwich, Connecticut, then knocked the puck into the half-empty net with 2:07 remaining in regulation, helping the No. 6 Crimson (12-5-2, 8-4-2) earn a point in what amounted to a 1-1 draw against its archrival.

“We thought we had it won there late,” Yale coach Keith Allain said. “And they fought back and tied it up. I would say a tie would probably be the appropriate result for that game.”

“Certainly we would’ve liked to get the win,” Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91 said. “But if you had asked me with two and a half minutes left, ‘Would I have taken the tie,’ we probably would have.”

One night after shutting out Brown, Crimson goaltender Merrick Madsen put together another impressive performance in net, stopping 27 shots. The only puck to get by the junior all weekend—the tip of a Robbie DeMontis shot from the side boards with 3:16 left—was the product of Hart and senior defenseman Clay Anderson standing right in front of him.

“I saw the puck redirect, and I reacted just as it got by me,” Madsen said. “I heard it nick off the post. So it’s tough obviously, you want to have those. But those are the bounces that happen in games like these.”

Over the last three years, there’s been something to be said about “games like these.” Five of the last six battles between Harvard and Yale have been decided by a goal or less, and neither side has scored more than three goals in any of them. Therefore, even with the Crimson boasting the top offense in the ECAC and the Bulldogs coming off a seven-goal outburst on Friday, both teams knew exactly what they were in for at the Bright.

“We knew it was going to be a one-goal game,” Madsen said. “It’s so hard, we have such a bitter rivalry with those guys that we just know going in there that it’s going to be tough to score…. Obviously we’re not satisfied [with the tie], but we went into the game knowing that it was going to be a tough one.”

Yet while the series has produced low scores as of late, Allain spoke after the game about how the scoring opportunities have always been there. On Saturday, Harvard had several such chances to pounce, particularly on four power plays—three of which came in the second period.

But Yale successfully completed all four of its kills against the country’s top man advantage, even without the services of Ryan Hitchcock, once a mainstay on the Bulldog kill before the junior broke his leg against St. Lawrence last weekend.

Donato said he felt his power play wasn’t sharp enough and attempted to be “too cute” with several of its chances. But he also credited Spano for having a hand in that.

Spano finished with 33 saves on the night, including 14 between the third period and overtime. Over the course of the Bulldogs’ current four-game unbeaten streak, Spano has compiled a .969 save percentage.

Early on, it appeared as though Spano might need to have a career night to keep the Crimson at bay, as the hosts peppered the netminder with seven shots over the first eight minutes and change. But the Yale defense buckled down and held Harvard without a shot on goal for the final 11 minutes of the opening period, resurrecting the theme of these recent wars of attrition between the rivals.

Each goalie made one signature save on the way to the finish line. Midway through the second period, Spano made a stellar stop with his right pad to deny sophomore Lewis Zerter-Gossage, who had a chance to rip home a juicy rebound in the slot. Madsen then produced his highlight with about 10 minutes to go in regulation, nabbing a Joe Snively wrister that had an eye for the top corner with his glove.

After the two sides exchanged late blows in the third, Malone had the best opportunity of the extra frame when the puck bounced onto his stick at the bottom of the right faceoff circle, but his wrister with 1:37 left was held by Spano.

For the time being, the tie drops Harvard to 13th in the PairWise rankings. But with the way Yale’s been playing as of late, the mathematical rankings likely won’t consider this game a ‘knock’ against the Crimson for long.

“Those are the types of games our group knows that we want to play in at the end of the season,” Donato said. “It’s a good barometer for us to see… what kind of commitment we’re going to need to make on and off the ice to have success in a game like that.”

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