Team Notes: Harvard Seeks Beanpot Consolation Against No. 14 BU

Game On
The Harvard men's hockey team looks to hand No. 14 Boston University its first Beanpot consolation loss in 31 years as the crosstown rivals meet at TD Garden Monday at 4:30 p.m. The Crimson is seeking its 14th third-place finish.

Game Notes (PDF) | Beanpot Official Site

Follow From Home
WHRB-FM 95.3 and WHRB.org will offer live audio  of Monday's game, with Brendan Roche and Raafi Alidina on the call. GoCrimson.com links to live statistics.

Behind the Bench
Former Crimson captain, NCAA Frozen Four Most Outstanding Player and 13-year National Hockey League veteran Ted Donato '91 is in his seventh season as The Robert D. Ziff '88 Head Coach for Harvard Men's Ice Hockey. He owns a 95-107-21 record, three ECAC title-game appearances and two NCAA tournament bids.

In Last Week's Semifinals
Behind three second-period goals and 41 saves from Chris Rawlings, Northeastern skated to a 4-0 victory against Harvard (4-18-1) Feb. 7 at TD Garden. The Crimson registered a season high in shots, including 17 in the first period. Pier‑Olivier Michaud (Mont-Joli, Que.) led Harvard with seven shots on goal, whileRence Coassin (Hamden, Conn.) logged six. The Crimson could not take advantage of six power plays.

It took three extra minutes of game time for top-ranked Boston College to send the Terriers (14-8-7) to the consolation game for the third time in the last 28 years and 11th time overall. BC's Tommy Cross scored the game-winner on a power play after the Eagles rallied from a 2-1 deficit in the third period. Wade Megan and Corey Trivino scored for the Terriers, and Kieran Millan made 37 saves. BU could not regain the lead on three third-period power plays.

Seeking Consolation
Harvard is 13-20 in its 33 previous appearances in the Beanpot consolation game. The Crimson's last third-place finish came in 2006, when Justin Tobe '07 made 24 saves and Jon Pelle '08 scored two goals in a 5-0 consolation shutout of Northeastern.

Harvard and Boston University have met just twice in Beanpot third-place tilts. The Crimson's 7-4 win in 1980 handed BU its third—and most recent—fourth-place finish in the Beanpot. The teams faced off for third place again three years later, with the Terriers prevailing, 5-4.

BU's only other fourth-place finishes came in 1961 and '63.

Hall of Famer
Bob McManama '73 became Harvard's 10th inductee to the Beanpot Hall of Fame when he was honored between semifinal games last week. McManama totaled eight points on three goals and five assists in six Beanpot games, including two final appearances. McManama was a 1973 All-America selection and a two-time All-ECAC and All-Ivy honoree.

Last Time Out
The Crimson erased three different Princeton leads and scored a season-high three power‑play goals en route to a 4-4 tie with the No. 20 Tigers Friday night at Bright Hockey Center. Alex Killorn (Montreal, Que.) had the biggest shot of the night, tying the game with less than six minutes remaining, barely three minutes after Mike Kramer's second goal put Princeton back on top.

Rob Kleebaum also scored twice for Princeton. Killorn notched two assists for Harvard, while Chris Huxley (Weymouth, Mass.) recorded a goal and an assist, and Alex Fallstrom (Stockholm, Sweden) had two helpers. Conor Morrison (London, Ont.) and Daniel Moriarty (Bienfait, Sask.) also tallied. Kyle Richter(Calgary, Alta.) and Princeton's Sean Bonar each logged 29 saves.

Bouncing Back
Harvard trailed three times Friday but for a total of only eight minutes, 26 seconds, as the Crimson erased each deficit within about three minutes.

Power Surge
For the second straight year, Harvard netted a season-high three power-play goals in the game between Beanpot contests. Last season, the Crimson went 3 for 10 on the power play in a 5-2 win at Brown between Beanpot games. The Crimson had not scored three power-play goals in five or fewer opportunities since going 3 for 5 in a 5-3 win at No. 3 Boston College Nov. 15, 2005.

Even Ivies
The statistics in Friday's Harvard-Princeton matchup reflected the even, end-to-end action on the ice. Each team had 33 shots on goal, six minor penalties and five power plays. Each side scored once with a two-man advantage, and neither led by more than a goal. The score was tied at the end of each period.

Who's Hot?
Alex Killorn (2-3-5) and Chris Huxley (1-4-5) have five points each in the last five games.

Leading the Crimson
Alex Killorn paces Harvard with eight goals, 11 assists and 19 points. Brothers Michael Biega (Montreal, Que.) and Danny Biega (Montreal, Que.) have six goals and 10 assists each.

Leaving His Mark
Kyle Richter is tied with Bruce Durno '71 for third in Harvard history with six career shutouts. Dov Grumet-Morris '05 is the all-time Crimson record with 11 shutouts, and Grant Blair '86 ranks second with nine.

Richter has made 2,317 career saves to rank fourth on Harvard's all-time list. He needs 344 more stops to equal J.R. Prestifilippo '00 for third place. Grumet-Morris holds the Crimson career saves record with 3,081 Richter ranks fifth in career games started (84), games played (89) and minutes played (4,970) at Harvard.

In the Crease        
Kyle Richter stopped all seven shots he faced in a relief appearance in last week's semifinal and started Friday. Ryan Carroll (Hackensack, N.J.) started the previous five games, allowing two goals or fewer in four of those contests.

Conference Call
Monday's game is the last non-league contest of the regular season for any ECAC team. The conference has posted a combined 22–28–10 record against WCHA (8-8-4), CCHA (6-10-2) and Hockey East (8-10-4) teams. ECAC squads were 27–6–5 against teams from Atlantic Hockey for an overall record of 49-33-15 against teams from outside the league (records courtesy USCHO.com).

Close Calls
Harvard has lost eight games by a single goal and another game by two goals with one coming on an empty net. In 2011, five of the Crimson's six league losses have come by one goal. Harvard is 1-6-1 in 2011 ECAC games despite being outscored by just three goals, 22-19, in those games.

Top of the [Blue] Line
Danny Biega has 15 points (6‑9‑16) to lead Harvard defensemen. He is tied for the league lead among defensemen and tied for 15th among all skaters with six goals in ECAC Hockey play. He has totaled 15 points (6-9-15) in 17 league games to tie Princeton's Taylor Fedun for second in ECAC defenseman scoring, three points behind Rensselaer's Nick Bailen (5‑13-18). Biega is tied for 15th in league scoring among all players.

With six goals and nine assists overall, Biega averages 0.70 points per game, ranking him 19th nationally among defensemen.

Future Home Ice
Boston Bruins prospect Alex Fallstrom is playing his second Beanpot on the home ice of the club that owns his National Hockey League rights. Fallstrom, who missed 10 games with an injury suffered at Clarkson (Nov. 13), has returned to the lineup and returned to form. He has four points in the last five games. Fallstrom scored his first two goals of the season in consecutive games Jan. 28‑29 against Colgate and Cornell before recording a pair of assists against Princeton.

Crimson, Black and Gold
There is a strong Harvard presence at TD Garden, in the front office of the Boston Bruins. Former Crimson captain Peter Chiarelli '87 is the Bruins' general manager, and former All-American Don Sweeney '88 is the team's assistant general manager. Sweeney played alongside Chiarelli at Harvard and was a teammate of Ted Donato with both the Crimson and the Bruins. Another of Donato's Harvard teammates, John Weisbrod '91, is Boston's director of collegiate scouting.

The Killers
The Crimson has killed 31 of its opponents' last 34 power plays. The Crimson penalty killers were a season-best 6 for 6 on the penalty kill at Northeastern (Jan. 19) and 5 for 5 at Union (Jan. 21). The Dutchmen own the nation's top power play.

Jan. 15 at Agganis Arena
Then-No. 16 Boston University scored three straight goals to pull away and defeat the Crimson, 5-2. A second-period goal by Marshall Everson (Edina, Minn.) cut in half a 2-0 deficit, but the Terriers regained control with a pair of goals off Harvard turnovers, one shorthanded in the second period and another in the first minute of the third. Ryan Grimshaw also scored for Harvard, and Michael Biega notched two assists. Kyle Richter made 32 saves for Harvard, while Kieran Millan stopped 31 for BU. Chris Connolly scored twice for the Terriers.

Scouting the Terriers
With a 4-1-1 record in its last six games, BU has equaled its win total from the previous 16 games (4-7-5). That midseason stretch overlapped with a season-opening 6-0-4 run that saw the Terriers reach No. 1 in the national polls. Of the four recent wins, three came on the road, including a 4-3, overtime win Friday at Massachusetts and a 2-1 victory at No. 7 New Hamshire Jan. 22.

Alex Chiasson scored a goal and assisted Garrett Noonan's game-winner Friday. Chiassion leads the team in assists (17) and points (27), while Joe Pereira has scored a team-high 12 goals. Kieran Millan has started 25 of BU's 29 games. He owns a 2.71 goals-against average and .918 save percentage.

Series History
BU leads the all-time series against Harvard, 73‑62-6, and holds a 26-13 edge in Beanpot meetings, while the Crimson holds a 49-48-6 edge in non-Beanpot games. The teams first met Dec. 13, 1922, a 2-0 Crimson win at the Boston Arena. Harvard won 15 of the first 16 meetings and in 1952 pulled out a 7-4 win in the inaugural Beanpot tournament championship. The Terriers have won the last six Beanpot meetings. The Crimson's last Beanpot win against BU came in the 1994 semifinals, 4-2. A year earlier, Harvard topped BU by the same score to win its 10th and most recent Beanpot