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MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota kept Harvard’s dangerous top line in check for most of the Mariucci Classic championship game Saturday night.
But when the seventh-ranked Crimson needed Jimmy Vesey, Alexander Kerfoot and Kyle Criscuolo, they delivered in a big way.
Vesey fed Criscuolo for both the tying goal in the final minute of regulation and the winner in the opening minutes of overtime as Harvard won the holiday tournament title with a 4-3 victory at Mariucci Arena.
The top-line wingers were both minus-2 until they delivered stunning and fatal blows to Minnesota’s hopes of winning its tournament for the first time since the 2012-13 season.
“That’s really the true sign of how mature they are as players,” Harvard coach Ted Donato said. “They stuck with it. I don’t think there were a lot of things that were necessarily going their way, but toward the end of the game, that line makes two huge plays to allow us to get the overtime win.”
Harvard (8-1-3) added the Mariucci Classic title to the hardware it won at Notre Dame’s Shillelagh Tournament in November, but it needed some potentially overlooked plays to do it.
Leon Bristedt and Steve Johnson scored 28 seconds apart in the third period to give Minnesota (8-9) a 3-2 lead, but the Crimson had a late answer.
Vesey found Criscuolo at the back door for a putaway that tied the game 3-3 with 33.9 seconds left. But that wouldn’t have happened without Criscuolo jumping and fumbling to keep the puck in the zone at the right point seconds earlier.
“The guys on the bench were saying I got up pretty high there,” Criscuolo said with a smile. “I saw it coming up the glass and I was more worried about the guy in front of me running me out of the zone.”
And after the overtime intermission, Harvard freshman defenseman Jacob Olson broke up a pass on a Minnesota four-on-two rush. That led to Kerfoot driving the other way and dishing to Vesey, who drew a defender, but passed to Criscuolo on the right side for the finish.
“I knew that the goalie was going to be thinking that Jim’s going to shoot because he’s such a lethal shooter,” said Criscuolo, who was named the tournament MVP. “So I was hoping to just get it on net as quick as I could because I knew the goalie wouldn’t be in great position.”
Olson, from nearby St. Paul, Minn., made a play that may have been lost in the celebration, but was recognized by his teammates.
“He really made a great play with his Stretch Armstrong reach,” Donato said. “Really made the play on one end of the ice and then we got the puck in the hands of some pretty talented guys and they were able to finish it off.”
The Gophers were left shaking their heads at a game that got away.
They had a chance to move above .500 for the first time this season and to post their first three-game winning streak, but it got wiped out late.
“We had it,” said Johnson, whose goal was his first in 24 collegiate games. “A minute left and they scored. We definitely had it in the bag. We’ve just got to tighten up in the ‘D’ zone.
“Obviously, it’s very frustrating. We could have won the Mariucci Classic. We haven’t done that in a while.”
Gophers coach Don Lucia said he had no qualms with his team’s effort in returning from the holiday break.
“Sometimes there’s a difference between effort and execution,” he said. “All year, the effort’s been there but at times it’s making a pass, it’s making a play and that’s the difference between maybe setting up a scoring opportunity or fumbling it into the corner or missing the net. We still have some of those ongoing issues.”
Sean Malone scored 124 seconds into the game to put Harvard ahead, and Seb Lloyd doubled the advantage in the second period.
Michael Brodzinski’s goal with 18.1 seconds left in the second gave the Gophers some life heading into the third period, and they made it pay off with the quick strikes by Bristedt and Johnson.
“The game had the full gamut of emotions,” Donato said. “We got off to a good start and had the lead, then they scored the goals coming back and the crowd gets into it. I thought we stayed with it.”
