Visiting Swedes Defeat Crimson

In its first test of the 2010-11 season, the Harvard men’s hockey team was able to keep up with the visiting Swedish Under-20 team in an exhibition game at Bright Hockey Center last night. Sweden took the contest by a 2-1 count.

“For a team that hasn’t played a real hockey game really until tonight...I thought there were a lot of positives,” said Crimson coach Ted Donato ’91. “That’s a very skilled hockey team—up and down the lineup, probably as skilled a team as we’ll play this year, and I thought we did a lot of good things.”

Harvard dominated the pace of play in the first period, including an outstanding shift midway through the frame where the Crimson kept control of the puck in the offensive zone for a full 40 seconds, generating a number of shots.

“I think our play was really good starting from the first period,” assistant captain Kyle Richter said. “We controlled the play a lot in their zone, which we wanted to do, threw a lot of pucks on net early, and I thought our pressure off our forecheck was very good.”

But it was Sweden who got on the board first. Just under 14 minutes into the period, Johan Sundström took a shot from the slot that goalie Richter turned away. But the puck wound up on the stick of Dennis Everberg, who beat an out-of-position Richter to light the lamp.

Harvard continued to generate good offense throughout the remainder of the first half, finally breaking through in the last minute of play. Sophomore Alex Fallstrom, a Swedish native, drove towards the net from the right side. Though he whiffed on the first shot, Fallstrom put the puck on net, and the rebound bounced out to junior Ryan Grimshaw in the left circle.

Grimshaw launched a high shot past Johan Gustafsson and into the back of the net to tie the game at one. Sophomore Marshall Everson was credited with the secondary assist.

The second period was a bit of a different story, as Sweden dominated play in a frame marked by nine penalties. The Crimson had three power-play chances in the first half of the period but only got five shots on goal.

“I once had a coach tell me that first a power play has to look like a power play before it can start to score goals,” Donato said. “I thought it looked like a power play. We have to generate more shots, more rebounds, and that’s something we’ll get back to the drawing board [with].”

Harvard then committed five penalties in the span of less than eight minutes.

After a cross-checking penalty on Brendan Rempel with 7:30 left in the period, Sweden set up camp in the Crimson zone. Richter stood tall through an initial barrage of shots, but near the end of the advantage, Ludvig Rensfeldt let off a shot from near the top of the left circle that got over Richter’s leg and into the back of the net. Nils Andersson and John Klingberg assisted on the score, which came with just under six minutes to play in the frame.

Harvard dug itself into a pair of 5-on-3 holes late in the period, but solid play from Richter and his defense—particularly junior Peter Starrett, who made a few key blocks in the crease—kept the Swedes off the board for the rest of the period.

“I felt good,” Richter said of his play. “The guys really helped me out with seeing the pucks. Especially on the penalty kill...we did a good job of clearing guys out and clearing rebounds out, which makes my job a lot easier.”

The Crimson bounced back to play a solid third period, but its power-play struggles proved costly in the end. Harvard had two power plays in the final five minutes but couldn’t light the lamp.

Junior Daniel Moriarty had some of the best looks in the closing minutes, hitting a pipe with four minutes to play and putting a well-placed shot on net with 2:46 to go that needed a wicked glove save from Gustafsson to keep it out of the cage.

Harvard opens its season officially on Friday at home against Union.

“Union’s a top-20 team right now,” Donato said. “They’ve played eight hockey games and played well, so it’s a great challenge for us, but I do think that our guys are excited.”

—Staff writer Kate Leist can be reached at kleist@fas.harvard.edu.