The Crimson came out strong. Just four minutes and 50 seconds into the first period, Harvard University had out shot St. Lawrence 8-0 and continued to dominate the period early, only allowing St. Lawrence take their first shot on net at 7:14 into the first.
However at 15:37, as St Lawrence forward Brock McBride scored the first shorthanded goal the Crimson have allowed all season, Harvard lost momentum, gave up two five-on-threes and fell to St. Lawrence 3-1.
“I told the guys I thought the sad part of it was that we competed hard and worked hard to get a lot of good offensive chances. There a good team, their goaltender played well and I think we did enough to have a winning night,” said Harvard head coach Ted Donato.
“You can’t put a team in two five-on-threes. You can’t take three or four penalties every period and expect the results you want no matter how hard you work.”
Brock McBride, with assists from Kevin DeVergillo and Matt Generous got St Lawrence out to a very surprising start, scoring on a shorthanded opportunity in the first with a 2-1 rush and gave St. Lawrence the 1-0 lead going into the second.
Down 1-0, Harvard responded by coming out strong and Michael Biega scored on a power play, angling the puck right under Alex Petizian’s glove to bring the score up 1-1, at 8:31. It was Biega’s ninth goal in his last ten games.
“We just took some untimely penalties and it just killed our momentum, we got back to what we needed to do in the second and then we started taking more penalties. We have to cut that out of our game,” said Harvard captain Mike Taylor.
St. Lawrence’s Zach Miskovic broke the second-period tie with a goal on a two-man advantage, off a pass from McBride and the second assist of the night from Matt Generous. Hitting the top corner with a wrist shot, from the left side at 17:18. It was the second five-on-three opportunity Harvard had allowed St. Lawrence.
“I thought we did some good things, in the beginning but we gave them two five on threes, they cashed in on one of them…I don’t think we played unselfishly. I think we took some selfish penalties — retaliatory penalties — and unless we decide to put the team ahead of our individual grudges then we can’t win,” said coach Ted Donato.
St Lawrence would conclude the scoring at 3:21 in the third when Senior Jordan Hack put a shot off a pass from Aaron Bogosian and an assist from Jared Ross right below the cross bar to get St. Lawrence to a 3-1 lead.
St. Lawrence Goaltender Alex Petizian finished the night with 39 saves as the Saints improve their record to 8-9-3 overall, 3-4-2 in ECAC standings, as they look forward to a big game against Dartmouth on Sunday.
“We really utilized our four lines and played poised with the puck, and I think we did a better job as the game went on,” said Saint Lawrence Head Coach Joe Marsh. “We wanted a good consistency one-line feeding into the next, it’s a big win for us.”
Overall the Crimson out shot Saint Lawrence 40-24, as Harvard goaltender Kyle Richter finished the game with 23 saves. The Crimson return to the Bright Hockey Center tomorrow night, as the team looks to come back from tonight’s loss against Clarkson, currently ranked first in the ECAC in winning percentage.
“Everything’s team-wise. It’s not the fault of any one guy. It’s just something that we need to correct, our mentality as a team when we hit adversity,” said Harvard captain Mike Taylor, as Harvard is now 6-8-3 overall and 5-5-2 in league play. “There’s no time to just sit and think about our losses,” he continued. “We’ve got a highly ranked opponent tomorrow, that we have to come back for.”
“He has absolutely every component as a player that you want, and he’s legit tough,” said St. Lawrence head coach Joe Marsh.
