Team Notes: Crimson Meet Dartmouth at Bright
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.— The Harvard men's hockey team, riding a four-game unbeaten streak, seeks its third Ivy League win in five days as it welcomes travel partner Dartmouth to Bright Hockey Center Tuesday at 7 p.m.
Game Notes (PDF): Hi-res | Lo-res
Standings: ECAC
Hockey | Ivy
League
Scoreboards: ECAC
Hockey | National
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Game On
• Dartmouth and Harvard are wrapping up their season series.
The teams skated to a 3-3 tie Nov. 25 at Thompson Arena in Hanover,
N.H.
• With home wins against Yale, 4-3, and Brown, 3-1, over the weekend, Harvard moved into sole possession of fourth place in the ECAC Hockey standings and second in Ivy League. The Crimson can climb to within two points of Ivy frontrunner Cornell with a win against the Big Green. Harvard has Ancient Eight games remaining at Brown and Yale Feb. 17-18.
• The Crimson leads the NCAA in power-play efficiency at 31.8 percent (27 for 85). Harvard has scored at least one power-play goal in 18 of its 20 games, netted multiple power-play goals in eight games and converted its first power play in eight of the last 11 contests.
• Alex Killorn (Montreal, Que.) leads Harvard with 26 points and 14 goals. He ranks 12th nationally with 1.30 points per game and eighth with 0.70 goals per game. Both averages rank first among players in this year's Beanpot. He scored the tie-breaking goal in the third period of each game last weekend. Linemate Marshall Everson (Edina, Minn.) has three goals and five assists in the last five games.
• Harvard boasts two of the nation's highest-scoring defensemen. Danny Biega (Montreal, Que.) ranks second nationally in defenseman scoring at 1.15 points per game (5-18-23) and 14th among all players with 0.90 assists per game. Patrick McNally (Glen Head, N.Y.) ranks 10th among defensemen, second among freshmen on the blue line, with 0.85 points per game (4‑13‑17).
Last Weekend
Harvard posted back-to-back wins against its two oldest rivals in
front of sellout crowds at Bright Hockey Center. Alex Killorn
scored his second goal of the game with 1:19 left on the clock,
guiding the Crimson to a 4-3 win against rival Yale Friday night
with a national television audience watching on NBC Sports Network.
Marshall Everson set up the winning goal after scoring to give
Harvard a lead earlier in the third period. Luke
Greiner (Faribault, Minn.) also scored. Steve
Michalek (Glastonbury, Conn.) made a career-high 36
saves, including 16 in the third period, while Danny Biega and Colin
Blackwell (North Andover, Mass.) logged two assists
each. Click here for
Harvard-Yale highlights.
Eric Kroshus (Calgary, Alta.) scored the tying goal and assisted Killorn on the game‑winner later in the third period as Harvard came from behind to defeat Brown, 3-1, Saturday. Steve Michalek made 24 saves to help his team claim sole possession of fourth place in the ECAC Hockey standings. Danny Biega sealed the win with a final-minute, empty-net tally from deep in his own zone after Harvard entered the third period trailing by a goal. The Crimson killed all five Brown power plays. Click here for Harvard-Brown highlights.
Clutch Killorn
Alex Killorn's weekend game-winners were his second and
third of the season. He also netted the game-tying goal in the
Crimson's 2-2 draw at No. 9 Cornell Jan. 21, so he has scored to
earn Harvard a point in each of the last three third periods.
Killorn has totaled six game-winning goals in his career. Three
have come in the third period, including the lone goal with 8.2
seconds left last season against Rensselaer.
The Drawing Board
Harvard has tied eight games, breaking the previous program record
of six set in 1991-92 and matched in 2008-09. Minnesota State set
an NCAA record with 10 ties in 2002‑03. Colorado
College matched that mark in 2008‑09, as did
Western Michigan last season. The Crimson has six ties in ECAC
Hockey play, one shy of the record held by the 1991-92 Yale
(11‑4-7), 2003‑04 Dartmouth
(10-5-7) and 2010-11 Quinnipiac (6-9-7) squads.
Point Men
The Crimson has taken at least one point from 11 of its 15 ECAC
Hockey games. With a 2-1-5 record in league road games, Harvard has
taken points from seven of eight away contests.
Crowded House
Five points separate third through 10th places in the ECAC Hockey
standings.
Survey Says
Harvard has received votes in 12 of the 16 weeks of the USCHO.com
national poll, including eight points last week. A new poll will be
released Monday afternoon.
The Crimson is a team under consideration for the NCAA tournament and is tied with Bemidji State and Michigan Tech for 28th in the PairWise Ranking.
Poll Positions
Harvard had played seven ranked opponents in its last eight games
before last weekend. The Crimson was 0-3‑4
against those seven ranked opponents and is 1-3-5 against ranked
foes this season. Dating back to last season, Harvard is
3-5‑6 against its last 14 ranked
opponents.
Comeback Crimson
Harvard has entered the final period trailing in 13 games but has
rallied to win or tie in eight of those, including Saturday's
defeat of Brown.
Harvard has trailed 27 times during play this season and has come back to tie 22 times. The Crimson trailed twice each in its win against No. 18 Colgate and its ties against No. 19 Quinnipiac, Dartmouth, No. 18 North Dakota, No. 14 Union and No. 9 Cornell. Harvard scored seven goals over the final two periods to rally from a four‑goal deficit and defeat New Hampshire, 7-6, and erased four separate one‑goal deficits in a 4-4 tie at Massachusetts. Harvard is 2-5-6 when trailing after two and 4-5-8 when trailing at any point.
Magic Numbers
The Crimson is unbeaten when scoring four goals or more (4-0-2)
and has lost just once when allowing three goals or fewer
(5-1-6).
Time and a Half?
Nine of Harvard's 20 games have gone to overtime, including eight
of the last 13. The Crimson has played 42 minutes, eight seconds of
overtime.
Power Surge
Dating back to 2010-11, Harvard has netted 31 power-play goals in
its last 21 ECAC games. The Crimson has had three man-advantage
goals in three of those games and two in nine others. The Jan. 13
shutout loss to Union ended a Harvard streak of 18 games with a
power-play goal.
Special Forces
The Crimson is on pace to post the 17th-highest power-play
percentage in NCAA history. The last team convert at least 35
percent of its power plays over a full season was the 1986-87
Harvard squad at 35.9. The last school to break 30 percent was
Colorado College in 2002-03 at 30.8. The NCAA record for power-play
efficiency is 40.2 percent, recorded by Boston University in
1970-71.
The Killers
Harvard has killed 19 of its opponents' last 21 power plays,
including all six last weekend.
Outside the Box
The Crimson has allowed its opponents only 74 power plays this
season, the nation's lowest total and an average of just 3.7 per
game. That is 10 fewer than Cornell and New Hampshire, which are
tied for the nation's second-fewest power plays against. Only 10
other teams have allowed their opponents fewer than 100 power
plays.
Close Calls
Only two of Harvard's games have been decided by more than two
goals. Fifteen of the 20 games, including 14 of the last 16, have
been tied in the third period. At a point in every third period but
one, the score has been tied or the teams have been separated by
one goal.
All Even
In addition to Harvard's .500 overall record, the Crimson owns
even marks at home (4-4-1) and on the road (2-2-7), as well in each
month of the season so far (3-3-2 in November, 1-1-2 in December
and 2-2-4 in January).
Lockdown
Harvard has held five of its last seven opponents to two goals or
fewer and seven of its last eight to three goals or
fewer.
The Crimson has outscored its opponents, 24-14, in third periods this season. Harvard has owned a 6-1 advantage in last three third periods.
Nov. 25 at Thompson Arena
Three different Crimson players scored goals and Danny Biega
registered a pair of assists as the Crimson tied Dartmouth, 3-3, in
Hanover, N.H. Mike
Seward scored his first goal for Harvard at even
strength in the first period, and Alex
Fallstrom and Luke Greiner added
power‑play tallies to erase a pair of
one‑goal deficits in the second. Steve Michalek
made 24 saves, while Max
Everson blocked five shots. Tyler Sikura, Eric Robinson
and Doug Jones scored for the Big Green. James Mello made 24 saves
to combat a 37-26 shots edge for Harvard.
Series History
Harvard owned a 6-1-1 record in the previous eight meetings with
Dartmouth before the Big Green swept the 2010-11 regular-season
series. The Crimson owns a 126-60-10 all-time series edge. The
teams first met Feb. 7, 1907, a 12-3 Crimson win at Harvard
Stadium.
The teams faced off for a thrilling ECAC Hockey quarterfinal series last season. Visiting Harvard won the first game, as Alex Killorn, Alex Fallstrom and Michael Del Mauro '11 scored and the Crimson hung on, 3-2. In Game 2, Michael Biega '11 scored in the third period to tie the game, but Dartmouth's Andrew Owsiak bounced a puck off a defender 97 seconds into overtime for a 2-1 win. Fallstrom scored twice in the third game, but James Mello's 35 saves keyed a 4-3 Big Green win to advance to the league semifinals in Atlantic City.
Scouting the Big Green
Dartmouth has scored 15 goals over the course of its last three
games, including four unanswered in a 5-4, come-from-behind win in
overtime at Colgate Jan. 21. Following a 6-2 win against Brown, the
Big Green saw the tables turned by Yale Saturday. The Bulldogs came
back from three goals down for a 5-4 win, dropping Dartmouth's
record to the .500 mark.
Doug Jones paces Dartmouth with 17 points, while Eric Robinson and Tyler Sikura share the team lead with nine goals each. Matt Lindblad has a team-high 12 assists. Three different goaltenders have started games for the Big Green. James Mello has been in net for 12 games, posting a 3.23 goals-against average and .890 save percentage.
