CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Sophomore Tim Harrison scored his sixth goal of the season, but No. 13/14 Harvard tallied the first four goals of the game to post a 4-1 victory over Colgate in ECAC Hockey action Friday at the Bright-Landry Hockey Center.
The Crimson scored twice in a 1:56 span midway through the first period to take an early lead. Sean Malone got Harvard on the board at the 8:38 mark before Luke Esposito doubled the Crimson margin to 2-0 with his fifth of the season with 10:34 gone in the opening frame.
Tyler Moy stretched the Crimson cushion to 3-0 with less than a second remaining in the second period and Phil Zielonka expanded the Harvard margin to 4-0 early in the third before Harrison got the Raiders on the board with a power play strike six minutes into the final frame.
Harvard keeper Steve Michalek recorded 25 saves for the Crimson as he picked his 13th victory of the season. Freshman Zac Hamilton made his second career start in goal for the Raiders. He finished the evening with 24 stops.
Bottom Line
No. 13/14 Harvard 4, Colgate 1
Won-Lost Records
– No. 13/14 Harvard improved to 13-8-2 overall and 9-6-2 in ECAC play as it halted a four-game losing skid.
– Colgate slipped to 15-11-3 on the season and 7-7-3 against conference competition.
How It Happened
– Malone opened the scoring at the 8:38 mark of the contest. Malone entered the Colgate zone and fired a shot from the top of the slot that was partly blocked and went wide left of the Raiders cage. Malone was able to corral his rebound and place a rebound shot just under the cross bar for his fourth goal of the season. Clay Anderson was credited with the lone assist on the play.
– Esposito doubled the Harvard cushion to 2-0 just 1:56 later, depositing a feed from Malone past Hamilton and inside the left post during a zone entry opportunity for the Crimson. Kyle Criscuolo also earned a secondary assist on Esposito’s fifth tally of the season.
– Moy pushed the Harvard margin to 3-0 with his eighth goal of the season when he deposited a backdoor feed from Jimmy Vesey at the left post with 00.1 showing on the clock in the second period. Alexander Kerfoot picked up the secondary assist on the even-strength tally.
– Zielonka made it 4-0 Crimson 2:41 into the third as he gained entry into the Colgate zone and wired a wrist shot from the top slot over the glove hand of Hamilton. Seb Lloyd and Michalek were credited with assists on the play.
– Harrison spoiled the Crimson shutout bid with his sixth goal of the season as he fired a one-timer feed from senior Joe Wilson past Michalek from the bottom of the left faceoff circle. His power play goal came at exactly the six-minute mark of the third period.
Inside The Box Score
– Harvard out-shot Colgate, 28-26, for the contest. The Crimson held the edge in the first (10-8) and third (11-10) periods, while the Raiders posted a slim 8-7 margin in the second.
– Colgate was 1-for-5 on the power play while Harvard was 0-for-5 with the man advantage.
– The Raiders posted a 37-25 margin in the faceoff circle. Tylor Spink was 16-of-24 at the faceoff circle to lead the Raiders.
– Moy led all players with five shots on goal while Tyson Spink and Brett Corkey paced Colgate with four shots apiece.
Key Raider Info
– Junior Darcy Murphy played his 100th game in a Colgate uniform with his appearance in Friday’s contest. Murphy is the sixth different Raider to reach the century mark in games played during his career this season.
– Harrison scored his third power play goal of the season, moving him one back of Wilson and junior Kyle Baun for the team lead in that category (4).
– Harrison became the 10th Colgate player to reach double digits in points this season (6 G, 4 A).
– In his third game back in the lineup after missing 17 games to injury, Borkowski recorded his second point with an assist on Harrison’s third-period tally.
‘gate One Timers
– Colgate slipped to 2-6-0 against ranked competition this season.
– The Raiders moved 0-7-0 this season when scoring one goal or less.
– Colgate saw its record shift to 2-9-0 when allowing three or more goals in a game in 2014-15.
– Raiders dropped to 2-7-1 this season when trailing after the first period.
– Colgate moved to 2-9-2 on the year when behind after two periods.
– The Raiders slipped to 3-7-3 in 2014-15 when allowing the first goal of the contest.
– Colgate moved to 11-4-1 on the year when scoring a power play goal.
From The Source
Colgate Head Coach Dan Vaughan
(On first period and playing from behind)
“It’s hard to play from behind. We just talked about that. It takes a lot out of you. We’ve had to play from behind too much lately and then you start to press and do things that are uncharacteristic. We get away from our structure and our process. It was a frustrating game for sure. Those first two goals were too easy. You can’t give up easy goals like that. It’s very draining to have to work your way back into a game like that.”
(On ways to increase scoring)
“We’re still firing pucks at the net. We had close to 30 shots tonight. Guys start to press when shots are not going in. That’s when you see pucks bounce over sticks and guys shooting when they should pass and pass when they should shoot. A lot of teams have been in similar situations and it is frustrating. We’ve got to find a way to back to focusing on the process. That’s what is going to get us out of this; our structure, our work ethic and our good habits. It doesn’t work the other way around.”
(On facing Dartmouth)
“We’ve got to learn from tonight. I think we need more consistent play and effort out of certain guys on our team. You can’t be a sometimes hockey player. I felt that at times tonight we were. You’ve got to bring it every time and I think guys have to learn that and park this one away, because there is nothing we can do about this one. We have a chance to redeem ourselves tomorrow night against a good Dartmouth team on the road.”
Up Next
– Colgate is back in action Saturday when it travels to Dartmouth for a 7 p.m. ECAC Hockey contest.
