With Cornell's Help, Men's Hockey Wins Share of Cleary Cup

UPDATED: February 26, 2017, at 2:05 a.m.

“They tied!”

The announcement emerged from somewhere in the stands. The seniors of the Harvard men’s hockey team were occupied, posing for the cameras alongside their families as part of the Crimson’s Senior Night festivities. Meanwhile, Harvard’s younger skaters remained fixated on a feed that lagged too far behind to render a valid out-of-town result.

“They tied at 3-3!”

This spectator now had the Crimson’s attention. Eyeing its first ECAC regular-season championship in 23 seasons, No. 3 Harvard had entered Saturday seeking a favor from its oldest rival. Playing host to No. 7 Union, the No. 9 Cornell Big Red needed to take at least a point from the conference frontrunners at Lynah Rink to give the Crimson a chance at a crown. And for once, the Cornell icemen proved willing to lend Harvard a helping hand.

Trailing 3-2 with just 5:01 remaining in regulation, Cornell’s Mitch Vanderlaan netted the kind of equalizer that would make Gabas Maldunas proud—one that forced overtime, produced a tie, and in accordance with a Maldunas mission, saved the day for the Crimson.

“We kind of saw the guys come exploding back onto the ice after they had gotten off,” said co-captain Devin Tringale about the non-seniors who were about to head to the locker room. “It was special with all of our families around the ice out there when we heard the news, so that was pretty cool. It made for a special Senior Night.”

Hoist Another Trophy - Co-captain Devin Tringale hoists a stand-in for the Cleary Cup after the Crimson's 6-3 win over St. Lawrence.

The Captain's Cup - Co-captain Alexander Kerfoot lifts the stand-in trophy.

Luke What I Found - Senior forward Luke Esposito holds the trophy as junior goaltender Merrick Madsen looks on.

Clay's Day - Senior defenseman Clay Anderson earned his 12th assist of the season in the win.

Big Z - Senior forward Phil Zielonka earned two assists in the first period against St. Lawrence.

Of course, Harvard also needed to win a hockey game of its own Saturday evening. But that proved to be the simplest part of the equation. Using its speed to counter the physicality of visiting St. Lawrence (16-11-7, 12-6-4 ECAC), the Crimson (22-5-2, 16-4-2) dominated the first half of its regular season finale, opening up a lofty 5-0 lead in its eventual 6-3 victory at the Bright-Landry Hockey Center. With the win—Harvard’s 10th in a row—the Crimson finishes the regular season unbeaten at home for the first time since 1994 when it last topped the ECAC.

With both requirements—a Harvard win and a Union tie—being satisfied, the Crimson now stands atop the ECAC once more. Having earned 34 points in conference play, Harvard will share the Cleary Cup with Union; but by virtue of a tiebreaker, the Crimson will receive the top seed in the ECAC tournament, which begins next weekend.

“It’s something our guys really had a focus on,” said Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91 about the regular-season title. “Oddly enough, I think that the group [at preseason] meetings actually put 34 points on the board and said that’s what it’s going to take to win the league. They hit the nail right on the head.”

According to Tringale, the team arrived at its 34-point benchmark after examining exactly how many points previous league champions have needed over the last 15 to 20 seasons. Once the determination was made, “34 points” was written in plain sight within the Harvard locker room, where it’s remained for the length of the current campaign.

Harvard struck three times in the opening period Saturday night to open up a 3-0 lead over St. Lawrence in the two teams' regular season finale. By Thomas W. Franck

As Donato suggested, the Crimson would need every last one of those points to win a piece of its third major trophy this season. But Harvard left no doubt about its ability to acquire points 33 and 34. The Crimson asserted its dominance right from the start on Saturday, outshooting the No. 20 Saints, 18-4, in the opening frame and opening up a 3-0 lead in a matter of three minutes and change.

Harvard first put the scorekeepers to work at 8:21, when senior Phil Zielonka sent a feed from behind the net to Kyle Hayton’s right post, where freshman Nathan Krusko knocked in his ninth goal of the season. Soon afterwards, Alexander Kerfoot and Jake Horton lit the lamp just 19 seconds apart to blow the contest open.

Sophomore Ryan Donato set up the Kerfoot goal, delivering a pass towards freshman defenseman Adam Fox—again by Hayton’s right post. But before the feed reached the rookie, the puck shot off the stick of St. Lawrence freshman Carson Gicewicz over to the opposite pipe. There, Kerfoot tapped in the Crimson’s second goal of the game, becoming the lone Harvard fourth-year to score on Senior Night. Moments later, Horton unleashed a wrister from just outside the slot that knuckled past the glove of Hayton at 11:35 to make it 3-0.

“I thought we came out firing out of the gate,” Ted Donato said. “We were skating, we put a lot of pressure on them, and all four lines were playing a fast game. We got out to the start we were looking for.”

Sophomore Ryan Donato celebrates with linemate Lewis Zerter-Gossage after scoring Harvard's fourth goal of the night. The two top-liners combined for 14 of the Crimson's 43 shots on goal. By Thomas W. Franck

Typically a stud between the pipes, Hayton didn’t last much longer. After Ryan Donato backhanded a loose puck into the cage from the power play just 2:01 into the second period, the junior received the hook from St. Lawrence coach Mark Morris. Despite entering the game with the sixth-best save percentage in the country, Hayton stopped only 16 of the 20 shots on goal he received from the nation’s leading scoring offense.

With sophomore replacement Arthur Brey in net, Ryan Donato struck again for a team-leading 18th time of the season. Twelve minutes following his first goal, the sophomore faked a slapshot from the top of the right circle, moved towards the slot and ripped a wrister past the new netminder. 5-0.

The Saints did match their underwhelming 12-shot output across the opening two periods with a dozen more in the third. In turn, St. Lawrence produced just enough goals to make things interesting in the final minutes after the attention of most Harvard spectators had shifted towards Ithaca, New York.

Junior top-liners Joe Sullivan and Mike Marnell scored the first two goals of the final frame, from the power play and the penalty kill, respectively, getting the Saints back within three with 5:11 to go.

Then just as Cornell came up with its all-important equalizer at Lynah, St. Lawrence gave the Crimson a brief scare when a crashing Gicewicz punched a third puck past Madsen with 3:28 remaining—more than enough time for the Saints to score two more.

But with 2:37 to go, the officials caught St. Lawrence with too many men on the ice, leaving the visitors unable to create enough man-down offense to continue their comeback. Sophomore Lewis Zerter-Gossage iced the game with an empty-netter from the right faceoff circle with nine ticks left on the clock.

Now Harvard will take a week off before kicking off the postseason at the Bright on March 10. As the number one seed, the Crimson will host the lowest seeded team remaining in a best-of-three series with a trip to the ECAC semifinals in Lake Placid on the line.

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