Early Offense Takes M. Hockey Over Big Green

HANOVER, N.H.—The Harvard men’s hockey team began Friday night’s game against the Big Green in much the same way it ended last Saturday’s game against the Big Red—with an offensive flurry.

“We had to come in and from the opening face-off really establish the tempo,” said Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni.

The Crimson (17-8-1, 15-4-0 ECAC) did just that, taking control of the game against Dartmouth (14-11-1, 10-9-0) early by scoring two special teams goals, the first in a four-on-four situation, and the second on a more conventional power play. From that point, Harvard never looked back, playing steadily throughout the second and third periods to capture a 4-1 win.

The Crimson began the game with two factors working against it. The first was the flu symptoms that struck the team this week—which one day forced almost 10 players out of practice and kept junior defenseman Kenny Smith out of the Dartmouth game—and the second the near-sellout crowd at Thompson Arena in Hanover that helped breathe life into the Big Green in the second period.

Dartmouth looked poised to have the first power play of the game when Harvard junior defenseman Dave McCulloch was whistled off for holding at 5:55. But Big Green freshman phenom Hugh Jessiman soon followed McCulloch to the box, setting up a four-on-four. A mere nine seconds later, Crimson captain Dominic Moore scored his 19th goal of the season. Coming off the face-off, senior forward Brett Nowak shot the puck at Dartmouth goaltender Nick Boucher. Moore came in to clean up the leftovers, poking home the rebound through Boucher’s legs at 7:27.

Following the goal, Harvard was on a five-on-four power play and set itself up in the Dartmouth zone. Moore fired in a shot from the right circle, which Boucher saved. Nowak was on the doorstep and hacked at the rebound, but Boucher made a second save. Nowak gathered the puck again and this time slid it across the crease to junior forward Tyler Kolarik, who smartly one-timed the puck by Boucher, giving Harvard a 2-0 lead.

The Crimson was in control for much of the remainder of the first, but play was more balanced in the second. The Big Green got a power play at 5:03 of the second when sophomore forward Tom Cavanagh was called for hooking, but the Harvard penalty killers were equal to the challenge. Trouble arose when sophomore defenseman Ryan Lannon was sent off for interference, less than a minute after the previous advantage was thwarted.

And given four whole minutes playing a man-up, Dartmouth took advantage.

The puck was along the side boards at the Crimson end, with junior forward Rob Fried and freshman defenseman Peter Hafner digging against Dartmouth’s forwards. When a third Big Green attacker came into the play, sophomore defenseman Noah Welch drifted over to the side and applied a strong hit. Unfortunately the puck squirted loose and Dartmouth crashed the net on a mini-breakaway. Senior Kent Gillings took the puck in and fired a shot at sophomore goaltender Dov Grumet-Morris, who made the save but couldn’t control the rebound. Amidst the scrum at the top of the crease, Jessiman found the puck—and the back of the net.

Within one, the crowd and the Big Green became energized. The play was back and forth for over six minutes, until a costly Dartmouth penalty gave Harvard the energy-killer it needed.

With standout Dartmouth defenseman Trevor Byrne pinching on the offensive end, Cavanagh and junior forward Tim Pettit began a two-on-two break against defenseman Brian Van Abel and forward Max Guimond. Pettit pushed hard, drawing his defender and leaving Cavanagh room to fire a hard shot that blew by Boucher and the net, slipping out the top left corner from the force of the shot after it had crossed the goal line.

“Our mistakes ended up in the back of our net,” said Dartmouth coach Bob Gaudet. “That’s a credit to them. They got the job done.”

The Big Green continued to apply pressure to Harvard, pushing up in the zone in an attempt to close the scoreboard gap. This proved costly when a Grumet-Morris save was scooped up by Pettit and outletted to Cavanagh. Cavanagh and Fried skated hard on the two-on-one break, but Cavanagh again kept the puck, this time drawing his defender into a premature slide. He then skated around the defender before wristing the puck into the upper corner where Boucher had no chance for a save.

“I thought our success was dependent on our ability to win the one-on-one battles,” Mazzoleni said. “And when we have the puck, good things happen.”

Both of those statements were directed at his team’s effort, but Mazzoleni’s comments might just as easily have had a singular recipient—Cavanagh. The sophomore won both of his one-on-one battles and made two positive things happen when he had the puck.

—Staff writer Timothy M. McDonald can be reached at tmcdonal@fas.harvard.edu.