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UPCOMING GAMES

Men’s LACROSSE AT ALBANY 2/29 ___________________________________________________________ woMen’s ICEHOCKEY Vs. Yale 2/28 ___________________________________________________________ MEN ’S SW IMMING IVY LEA GUE CHAMPIONSHIP 2/26-2/29 ___________________________________________________________ SKI n MIDDLE BURY/Ei sa REGIONALS 2/28-2/29 ___________________________________________________________ Men’s ICE HOCKEY VS. RENSSELAER 2/28 ___________________________________________________________ MEN ’S BASKETBALL AT COLUMBIA 2/28 __________________________________________________________ WOm en’s BASKETBALL s. COLUMBIA 2/28 ___________________________________________________________

M n’ hock y Harvard Takes Down Clarkson on the Road, 5-2

By p nc r r. orri Crim son Staff Writer

POTSDAM, N.Y. — One thing the Harvard men’s hockey team lacked was a win over a top-10 foe. On Friday night, the No. 20 Crimson (12-9-6, 10-5-5 ECAC) checked that box.

Harvard defeated No. 5/6 Clarkson, 5-2, to start its in famous North Country road trip on a high note. The Golden Knights (23-7-2, 16-4-0) repre sent the highest-caliber opponent Harvard has defeated in 2019-2020 and the program’s first takedown of a top-five team since its Beanpot crown on Feb. 13, 2017.

The victory comes at a cru cial time of jockeying for position in the conference standings — the two points enhance the Crimson’s chances of lock ing in a top-four seed and hence a first-round bye in the ECAC tournament.

With Friday’s result, Har vard has taken points from all 11 conference adversaries this season.

“It was a good win for us,” said Crimson forward Jack Do nato. “[Clarkson is] one of the better teams in the league…. We wanted to have a good team ef fort. Four lines chipped in, six [defensemen], really good goal ie play.”

Already ahead by two scores early in the first period, Har vard coughed up multiple eastwest passes on the powerplay leading to two quality chances going the other way for Clark son forward Zach Tsekos. Freshman goaltender Mitchell Gibson (2 GA, .946 SV%), how ever, kept both chances out of the Crimson net.

“I thought they had a few pretty big chances,” Gibson said. “Just kind of had a clear mind and came up when I need ed to. Obviously, the two breakaways in the first, and knowing they had the number-one penal ty kill in the country, I was just trying to be ready at all times.” Having narrowly escaped a brief stretch of sloppy play, Harvard dealt another blow to its hosts. Junior winger Henry Bowlby used his speed to gain an edge on Golden Knights for ward Mathieu Gosselin. A drop pass and a blocked shot left the puck lingering in the slot, where junior centerman Jack Badini picked it up and, subsequently,

JACK ATTACK Junior forward Jack Badini scored the game-winning goal during a 5-2 road victory over Clarkson on Friday. Badini’s tally came midway through the first period. timothy r. o’meara—Crimson photographer

found twine.

Badini’s momentum-shift ing goal was also the deciding strike in Friday’s affair.

“That [goal] was huge,” said Crimson sophomore forward Jack Drury. “That line has been good for us all year. Whenever they’re together, [Badini, soph omore R.J. Murphy, and Bowlby] have done a great job being hard and being fast…. [The goal] was great timing, and give Bowlby and Badini a lot of cred it for making that play happen.” Early in the middle stanza, the foes traded notches. Clark son came out of the intermission firing after a lackluster first 20.

Within two minutes, the green and gold were on the board, courtesy of a slick back hand shot that sophomore forward Anthony Callin roofed on Gibson.

Three minutes later, rookie blue-liner Henry Thrun got one back for Harvard.

His wrist shot passed the of ficials’ review for goaltender interference and restored the Crimson’s comfortable threegoal advantage.

Toward the end of the frame, Harvard saw another could-be goal go to review; this time, se nior forward Colton Kerfoot’s stuff attempt was deemed to have been saved by Kris Old ham (0 GA, 1.000 SV%), the backstop who replaced starter Frank Marotte (4 GA, .789 SV%) after Thrun’s tuck.

The Crimson ended the sec ond period with a 31-20 lead in shots.

“The big lead kind of kept our confidence going,” Gibson said. “We just wanted to stay the course [when Clarkson scored in the second period]. We knew it was a big game, we knew we were still up. I thought it was just a good shot, nothing struc turally deficient or anything like that.”

The Crimson was commit ted to throwing shots on goal early in Friday’s bout. Offen sive-zone pressure led to the game’s first powerplay two and a half minutes after the opening puck drop.

Mere seconds into the man advantage, sophomore defense man Jack Rathbone sent a point shot toward Marotte. The puck trickled through the tender’s pads and for a moment sat in the blue paint, where Drury shoved it across the line.

Drury’s 17th of the season extends his Division-I lead in goals per game (0.74). Twen ty-one of his 32 points have come on Harvard’s lethal manup unit, which currently paces the nation at a 30.8 percent clip and has converted in all but five contests in 2019-2020.

The Harvard powerplay found success despite the formidability of the Golden Knights’ penalty kill, ranked number-one in the league at 91.7 percent effective.

Before the game was five minutes old, the visitors pot ted another puck to silence the boisterous Cheel Arena crowd. The culprit was yet another Jack — he of the Donato variety. The winger forced a turnover on the forecheck. With the puck at the bottom of the left circle, he hesitated, took it around the cage, and forced home a wraparound attempt.

“They were a little fidgety back there [on defense] to start the game,” Donato said. “[My linemates] did a really good job forechecking them…. I just wanted to get a puck on the net. [Goaltending coach Brian Rob inson] puts the scouting report out: slow moving post-to-post, so we wanted to try to take ad vantage of that early.”

Donato finished with a game-high two goals, as he also potted the empty-netter to seal the triumph.

Both Rathbone and firstyear forward Nick Abruzzese had productive nights, pocket ing two assists apiece. The former, with seven points (2–5—7) in his last four outings, is one of just five rearguards in the NCAA to be at or above a pointper-game pace.

Meanwhile, the latter con tinues a stellar freshman campaign and torrid stretch of late — Abruzzese leads college hockey in points since Dec. 1 with 28 (11–17—28).

After an uplifting win, the Crimson traveled down the road to Canton, N.Y., and fell to St. Lawrence, 6-3, in a Saturday matchup.

With the upset win over Har vard, the Saints (4-24-4, 2-17-1 ECAC) picked up just their sec ond conference victory of the season. Remarkably, it marked their first home win of the year. For the Crimson, the loss marked the end of a 10-game winning streak against St. Law rence that dated back to Feb. 20, 2015.

Harvard fell behind 4-0 during the first two periods of Saturday’s matchup and was unable to recover.

“We’re not really looking too far ahead,” Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91 said afer Friday’s win. “There are two teams in front of us, Cornell and Clark son. We’ve played well against [them] in our last two meetings. But realistically, that means nothing. So, we have to earn our way just to finish in the top four in the [ECAC] standings.”