Box Score

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Senior captain Mike Taylor had two goals and an assist to help send the No. 17 Harvard men's hockey team to its seventh league semifinal appearance in eight years. The Crimson posted a 3-1 win against Quinnipiac Sunday night at Bright Hockey Center in the deciding third game of the teams' Bank of America ECAC Hockey Championship quarterfinal series.

Third-seeded Harvard (16-12-4) will face either No. 2 seed Princeton or No. 5 seed Cornell in the second league semifinal Friday at 7 p.m. at the Times Union Center.

Doug Rogers, a last-minute insertion into the lineup after leaving Saturday's Game 2 with an injury, had a goal and an assist for the Crimson. His goal came just 37 seconds after the sixth-seeded Bobcats (20-15-4) tied the game in the second period. Fellow sophomore Kyle Richter made 26 saves, including seven on two QU power plays while leading by one goal early in the third period.

Bud Fisher made half of his 26 saves for Quinnipiac in the first period. Bryan Leitch had the lone goal for the Bobcats. Harvard held a 29-27 edge in shots after putting more than 40 shots on net in each of the series' first two games, an 11-0 win Friday and a 7-4 loss Saturday.

The Crimson continued its run of strong play at home in the playoffs. Harvard has not lost a home playoff series since 1995 and is 35-5-3 all-time in playoff games at Bright.

In a reversal of roles from Saturday, Harvard started the game strong, notching the first four shots on goal of the contest and holding a 14-3 edge in first-period shots.

The Crimson created plenty of pressure on the forecheck, but it was a shorthanded rush that put Harvard on top. Taylor took the puck from a QU defenseman and skated up the left side of the ice. Junior Jimmy Fraser joined the rush to create a 2-on-1, but Taylor chose to shoot to Fisher's blocker side for his third shorthanded tally of the season and a 1-0 Crimson lead.

In an evenly matched second period, neither team found the net for nearly 11 minutes. That changed when Bryan Leitch scored for the Bobcats. After a Zach Hansen shot deflected wide, Leitch shot from along the goal line on the left side into the top right corner. Ben Nelson also assisted on the play at 10:57.

Harvard did not wait long to respond. Just 22 seconds after the QU goal, Mike Atkinson was whistled for a high-sticking penalty. Rogers scored 15 seconds after that. Point men Alex Biega and Taylor traded passes at the Bobcat blue line, and Taylor then slipped the puck to Rogers at the top of the left circle. The sophomore blasted a one-timer past Fisher's glove for a 2-1 lead.

Quinnipiac got its best chances to tie on the two power plays early in the third period. Richter made three stops on the first man-advantage opportunity, including the save of the night on a right-to-left slide to stone Jamie Bates on a pass from Ben Nelson. Bates got another chance on the second power play, but Richter was there again for one of his four stops in the two minutes.

Richter made 10 more saves in the remaining 16 minutes. Taylor gave him some breathing room with his second score of the night with fewer than six minutes remaining. Rogers took an outlet pass from sophomore Ian Tallett coming up the right side. He stopped around the faceoff dot, waited for a diving defender to slide by and put a shot on Fisher. Taylor found his way to the rebound for his 12th goal of the season.

The Bobcats pulled Fisher for an extra attacker with just over two minutes left, but Harvard had the two best chances to score in the final moments. Senior Dave Watters' diving whack at a loose puck hit the left side of the net. Taylor nearly notched a hat trick by lofting a high shot from the faceoff dot in his own end, but the puck clanked off the post in the closing seconds.