Harvard Dominated by BC Eagles

The first period of the consolation game between the Boston College Eagles and the Harvard University Crimson saw the Crimson get on the scoreboard first when Casey Dornbach scored on the power play at 2:13, assisted by Jack Rathbone and Nick Abruzzese. Despite outshooting the Crimson, it would take the Eagles 12 minutes before they could get the tying goal. They were unable to convert on their own first power play, while Dornbach sat for a cross-check at 7:54. Eagles’ captain David Cotton would knot the game up at 14:11. He’d positioned himself along the goal line to the right of the net and Julius Mattila passed him the puck from the slot and he one-timed it past Harvard’s netminder Mitchell Gibson. Three seconds later the Crimson would again go on the penalty kill when Baker Shore was sent off for a faceoff violation—a hand pass. Again, BC was unable to capitalize while on the power play. However, the Eagles would go into the first intermission leading 2-1 when Jack McBain was able to put his own rebound in at 17:19.

The second period was all Eagles all the time. They outshot the Crimson 14-6 while scoring four goals to Harvard’s one in that period. The number of odd man rushes that BC had because of misplays from Harvard was tough for Harvard’s Gibson, who, despite the score, did a good job in many of those instances. A perfect example of the mistakes by Harvard was evident while they were on the power play. Graham McPhee was in the box for BC for interference and despite being down a man, they were able to score two short-handed goals during that penalty. Alex Newhook, unassisted, got the first at 12:22 of the second. And then 1:19 later, while on a two-on-one, McBain got his second of the game. That gave the Eagles a 5-1 lead, as Logan Hutsko had notched an even strength goal at 5:53 of the period. Just as the unfortunate Harvard power play ended, R. J. Murphy was able to put a one-timer from the right dot past Spencer Knight to give Harvard their second of the game. The Eagles were not happy to have only a three-goal lead though, because with 24 seconds remaining in the period, Matt Boldy, again on an odd-man rush, assisted by Newhook, gave the Eagles their sixth goal of the game.

Harvard tried hard to notch some goals in the third period. It was the only period in which they were able to outshoot the Eagles, but unfortunately, they were unable to get any of those shots past Knight.  In an effort to change the momentum, Harvard’s head coach Ted Donato elected to replace Gibson with Cameron Gornet in the third.

“The goalie change was more about just trying to change the momentum for the team and certainly was no indication of Mitch’s [Gibson] effort in the game. You know, I think it was a team wide lack of intelligence and focus that put us in that position, but I thought he made some real acrobatic saves. He made a save I think on a breakaway, made a tremendous save on a two-on-one,” shared Coach Donato after the game.

Despite the concerted effort by the Crimson in the third, the Eagles were able to get one more goal to make the final score 7-2, when Mike Hardman was given all sorts of time and space in the slot to score at 5:16 with assists from linemates Boldy and Newhook. They form a new line that head coach Jerry York referred to as the “rookie line”

“I thought the rookie line played very well. I think they each contributed some points, but they play well together. Certainly, one of Matt’s [Boldy] best games of the year. He’s coming, he’s, he’s making good strides as is Mike [Hardman] and Alex [Newhook] so like all three of those guys. We never thought of putting them together as a line, but this is the first really week or so that we’ve done that. I think they responded very well,” Coach York said.

While neither team wanted to be playing in the consolation game, for both teams, the points out of this one were important looking toward the playoff season.