Postgame: Harvard 3 McGill 3 OT F

Well, some technical problems (not on WHRB's end) tonight meant the game could not be heard, so I figure some quick post-game stats are in order, following the brief analysis.

Analysis
Coach Donato talked about the importance of this game for the Crimson because it is their one and only chance to work out the kinks before starting ECAC Hockey play. Harvard, at times, looked like a team playing their first game. Passes weren't connecting, players were falling or running into each other, and they had trouble at times getting out of the zone. Still, the Crimson did a great job of hanging around a McGill team that, while officially 2-0 on the year, has already played 7 games coming into tonight, and which is ranked #8 in the CIS standings. It was also a great job of not letting up despite being down early 2-0, and later 3-1. Both of these things were seen the most in the third period, a period spent almost entirely in McGill's zone. It should also be important to not let the scoreline leave a false impression of the game: Harvard had plenty more opportunities, but faced a quality goaltender in Hubert Morin.

From what we've seen so far, the Crimson will be playing a very aggressive, fast-paced, physical game. All four lines tonight were speedy, and any turnover, anywhere on the ice, could be and was quickly converted into opportunities in the McGill end. Certainly there's some things, particularly defensively, that need to be worked on, but this was a great start for the 09-10 Crimson campaign.

Scoring Summary
1st Period
09:18 McGill EV goal by Guillaume Doucet, assisted by Simon Legare-Marcotte and Ben Gazdic to make it 1-0.
17:31 McGill PP goal by Francis Varreault-Paul, assisted by Andrew Wright and Alex Picard-Hooper to make it 2-0.
19:42 Harvard EV goal by Michael Biega, assisted by Louis Leblanc and Alex Killorn to make it 2-1.

2nd Period
10:37 McGill EV goal by Guillaume Doucet, his second on the night, assisted by Stephen Valente and Simon Legare-Marcotte to make it 3-1.

3rd Period
10:49 Harvard PP goal by Alex Biega, assisted by Conor Morrison to make it 3-2.
17:55 Harvard EV goal by Doug Rogers, unassisted to make it 3-3.

After the jump, we'll look at some more stats and our three stars of the game.

Harvard Top Boston Soccer Team

Harvard (3-0) defeated the no. 14 ranked Boston University Terriers 1-0 earlier this afternoon to claim the top bragging rights in Boston.

Jamie Rees scored the only goal of the game, and Austin Harms recorded his second straight clean sheet.

Harvard is now 2-0 against local rivals, as they defeated Boston College 2-0 in Newton on Monday.

The only other opponent that Harvard, BC, and BU have in common is in-state rival Holy Cross. Just a point against the Crusaders for Harvard would give the Crimson the equivalent of the soccer Beanpot for 2009.

Since Harvard was already receiving votes in the soccer polls, the win probably also means that the Crimson will enter the next week ranked.

The Crimson look to improve to 4-0 on Sunday at Ohiri Field against Army. We'll have more on the Harvard-BU game this Sunday on Sportstalk.

Harvard Wins "Derby" by Two Furlongs, er, Goals

Just got back from Newton where Harvard and Boston College met on the soccer field in an attempt to claim Boston area bragging rights, and it was Harvard that came out on top 2-0 to claim the "Labor Day Derby."

Rather than just lay out the game notes here, I decided since I ventured forth, I would tell what I saw in Newton. Although I will rely on the game notes for things that can escape (or be forgotten by) people not in the press box, including names and key times in the game.

Boston College drew a good crowd for the game, including a number of BC Superfans and other students, but the small but vocal mixture of parents and students who headed to BC to support Harvard made their voices heard as well.

I arrived at the field just in time to see Harvard strike first, at the 21:29 minute mark, when Andre Akpan corralled a loose ball in the area and sent it to the far post to Scott Prozeller, who fired it to his right to put it past the BC keeper, earning his first career goal. This completely quieted the Boston College crowd, only encouraging the Crimson Crazies that had made it out to the game. (With thanks and appreciation to Sports Illustrated on Campus and their good read on Harvard football tailgating from 2007 for the picture/story.)

Boston College came close to equalizing, as a turnover led to a close range shot for them, but it was turned away by keeper Austin Harms, who kept BC's two-shots on goal out of harms way (pun intended).

Then Harvard returned to the other end of the field, and a gasp went up from the partisan crowd as freshman Brian Rodgers got his head on a good cross, but it was turned away at the last moment with a fantastic save by Justin Luthy. Harvard then earned another opportunity, as Ben Tsuda fired a shot off the crossbar.

Harvard would then be the beneficiary of the woodwork when Edvin Worley found a good amount of space in front of the Harvard defense during a BC counter attack, and he fired a shot from fifteen yards out that, had it been on goal, would have been impossible to save for any goalkeeper. Fortunately, for Harvard fans, it cracked off the near post and the Crimson were able to clear. The BC fans were stunned at their misfortune, and the Harvard fans were now anxious.

BC had regained some momentum at this point and were looking dangerous, but with less than a minute left, the speedy Brian Rodgers sent a ball over to Andre Akpan, who left a beautiful touch pass for Jamie Rees, who put it in the back of the net, sending the Ivy League squad into the locker rooms with a 2-0 lead at the half, relieving Harvard fans of their anxiety and already sending some of the BC "Superfans" home.

That scoreline became the final score, after a half that saw BC and Harvard trying to cut into and add to the lead respectively. The best chance of the night came for BC in the 73rd minute, when Charlie Rugg got the ball on his foot at the near post, with Harms out of position. A Crimson defender tried sliding over to pressure Rugg, and while he didn't get the ball, the slide clearly affected Rugg, who sent the ball sailing wide. BC appealed for possession of the ball, either because of a perceived foul or for a corner, but the referee ignored their protests and signaled for the goalkick.

After that, Harvard played a quality possession game, and came close to adding to their lead, while BC didn't truly threaten the Crimson backline.

The man of the match:
I'm tempted to take Brian Rodgers here. His speed really created havoc at times for the Eagles' defenders, he set up the put-away goal, and he had a couple of opportunities in the second half to make it 3-0 Harvard. He just needed a little bit more luck with his touches and he would have been a goalscorer.

That said, I have to give it to sophomore defender Baba Omosegbon, who was a stalwart on defense. Everytime BC seemed to have an attack going, he either got a head to the ball or got his foot in to take possession and then clear it down the field. He broke up countless BC attacks, and was a key reason in why Harms only had to make two saves to earn his shutout/clean sheet.

That ends my take on the game. Here's a postgame quote from Coach Clark that I took from Harvard's press release:

“Every win against an ACC opponent is a great win. We were successfully scoring early today and to get those early goals on their field and on a playing surface we’re not used to [turf] was the key.”

More on this when the weekend preview gets written up and posted, but this isn't the last game for Harvard this week against Boston rivals. The Crimson face a ranked Boston University squad at Ohiri Field on Friday, giving me a few days to try to think of more puns with the word derby.

Weekend observations: Clarkson/St. Lawrence

Welcome to the WHRB Sports Blog, Harvard hockey fans. I hope to regularly update this space with commentary and observations about the team, post coach and player interviews, and keep you updated about upcoming hockey broadcasts on WHRB 95.3 FM.

That said, a few notes about this past weekend's games against Clarkson and St. Lawrence: 

If I had said that Jack Christian would be Harvard's leading goal scorer after 2 games, most would have been seriously alarmed about the potency of the Crimson offense. Yet the Crimson delivered a third period offensive explosion against St. Lawrence, netting 4 goals en route to a 6-1 victory. Half of the Crimson's goals were scored by players who had never scored before--Jack Christian (2) and Dave McDonald, the top defensive defensemen on the team. 

All things considered, I thought Harvard showed a lot of promise this weekend against two of the better teams in the conference. Clarkson is without question a superb team, while SLU appears to have some early-season kinks to resolve after being swept at home and falling to 0-3 in ECAC play. It was not surprising to see them fall out of the USCHO Top 20, while Clarkson moved up to #8 after picking up 4 points on home ice.

Harvard responded well after early nerves against Clarkson resulted in a goal at 1:00 of the first period, but simply couldn't penetrate the Clarkson zone for the last 10:00 of the third period. Possibly a conditioning issue (first game of the year) but credit Clarkson for stepping up and shutting down the Crimson attack.

SLU was a different story. Plenty of scoring chances in a fast-paced first period, with Christian lighting the lamp on a centering feed from Paul Dufault. Harvard gave SLU lots of chances to get back into the game with a string of penalties to begin the 2nd but the Harvard PK was stifling as it was the entire weekend. Fraser blocked a ton of shots on the PK. Obviously Harvard poured it on in the 3rd, with Christian scoring a ENG and McDonald scoring in the waning moments. SLU goaltender Petizian was shaky all night. Alex Biega fired a shot from the red line that hit the crossbar. Petizian clearly didn't have his best game and, in fairness, should have stopped some of the goals he surrendered.  

Story of the weekend was Richter's play in net. Many observers had questions about Harvard's goaltending situation, after a senior goaltender graduated for the third consecutive year. Personally I thought this was somewhat overdone, as it was Richter who played a large role in resurrecting Harvard's 2006-2007 season after its 3-9 start. Sure, his numbers weren't staggering (7-8, 2.84 GAA, .903 sv pct) but remember that his difficult starts against Yale and Brown (5-1 loss and 6-6, respectively) contributed significantly to his stats. Also, Richter has a knack for making big stops that can spark the team. He had some problems controlling his rebounds but made some first-rate saves to keep Harvard in the game against Clarkson and preserve its lead against SLU. I expect Richter to be strong in net this year. 

Defense was strong, especially compared to last year's early season defensive effort. Losing Reese obviously hurts on the offensive side but he was in my estimation Harvard's top shut-down defenseman last year. I expected the D to need some time to establish a groove but they looked solid to me. I expect Alex Biega and Morin to be better in their own zones this year. Biega, as an aside, also appeared more comfortable quarterbacking the PP, and he has a vicious shot from the point. 

More to come later on this weekend's home games vs. #16 RPI and Union...