Harvard Thoughts

For the eight time since Alex Tuch's golden goal in 2016, Boston College lost in the Beanpot, this time in perhaps most the heartbreaking way possible- a 4-3 overtime loss to the Harvard Crimson. Harvard's Marek Hejduk gave the Crimson the win with under two seconds to go in overtime, marking yet another game where BC has faltered at the end of a period. After a date with Maine on Friday, BC will play BU in the consolation game next Monday- for the first time in the 70-year history of the Beanpot. It will be BC's fifth consolation game appearance in the last six years. 

I'll go through some period-by-period notes, but the first thing I want to say is that I couldn't have been more impressed with the way BC stuck with it, especially in the third period. That is a really good Harvard team- Coronato, Laferriere and Farrell are probably three of the top ten forwards in college hockey right now. I wouldn't be surprised if the Crimson are a factor come March and April, if those guys stay healthy.

I thought the first period was by far BC's worst of the game and quite frankly, some of the poorest hockey they've played in a long time- the second period at BU notwithstanding. Harvard scored less than a minute into the game, when a Jack Bar shot from the point beat Benson clean, but the goal was called back after a pretty obvious too many men on the ice penalty was missed on Harvard. Even after that goal, Harvard was all over the Eagles. They created turnovers in the BC end and were firing everything they could at Mitch Benson. On the first actual Harvard goal, one of BC's defensemen fell at center ice, leaving Harvard with the first of many odd-man rushes they had in this game. They took advantage for the 1-0 lead. I think BC was late on a change because their defenseman tripped at center ice- if that hadn't been the case, perhaps their fresh body is on the ice in time to make a play, but that did not come to fruition. Honestly, BC was very lucky to get out of the first period only down a goal. Harvard was skating circles around them for the entirety of the period- by my count, BC only had one great shift, which was the final one of the frame. 

BC came out with more urgency in the second period and for the majority of the stanza, they were the better team five on five. However, the Eagles' penalty kill continues to doom them. Harvard's Matthew Coronato (what a player this kid is) made it 2-0 after a nifty pass from Sean Farrell. BC has allowed four straight power-play goals going back to the game against Lowell and they are now ranked 50th in the country in terms of penalty-kill percentage. Since the first game against Vermont, BC’s opponents are converting at a 32% clip on the power-play. On the second Harvard goal, BC just overcommitted on Farrell. Three Eagles collapsed on the Crimson forward, leaving Coronato wide open at the dot for an easy one-time goal. 

The Eagles finally got on the board when Mike Posma redirected a Lukas Gustafsson shot past Harvard goalie Mitchell Gibson. I have noticed over the past few weeks that the staff  has a lot of trust in Posma- they have him taking a lot of important face-offs and anchoring the net-front on the second power-play unit. It was definitely a lucky bounce, but one that BC will take. One of the key points of the game was when BC got another power-play in the second, down just a goal at the time. However, they were unable to muster any offense on that man advantage and quickly had to go back on the kill when Colby Ambrosio took a bad hooking penalty. Of course, Harvard scored- who else but Coronato? Honestly, watching the replay, this was just bad luck. BC was going to have the point covered, but Nesterenko and Burke collided with each other, allowing Farrell to just dish it over to Coronato, who beat Benson once again. This is definitely one that Benson wants back- it wasn't much of a shot from Coronato, but it found a way through and gave Harvard the 3-1 lead. 

Down 3-1 entering the third, I thought BC was dead in the water. They were better five on five in the second period, but Harvard was not allowing BC any chances in the slot. For the first forty minutes, all of BC's chances came from the perimeter and they did not get nearly enough traffic in front to make life hard on Gibson. That said, they should be extremely proud of the way they battled back in the final period. It was, in my estimation, one of their best periods of the season and the fact that they just kept plugging away is honestly all you can ask for as a fan. The easy thing to do would have been to roll over and let Harvard run away with it, but that didn't happen.

In particular, I thought Nikita Nesterenko and his line were buzzing for almost the entirety of the third. Oskar Jellvik had another strong game- he's had a couple of those in the second half of the season for BC. Harvard did not give Nesterenko much room in the first two periods, but he was absolutely flying in the third. Even before his goal, which was one for the highlight reel, he generated three or four high quality chances. On the goal, Nesterenko absolutely fooled a Harvard defenseman, before beating Gibson glove side to make it a one goal contest. You could feel the momentum swinging BC's way throughout the third, but once they made it a one goal game, the building had a palpable buzz to it. 

BC was able to tie it with 1:30 left in the third, thanks to a nifty snapshot from Cutter Gauthier. Gauthier did a pretty unreal job of making both the Harvard defensemen and Gibson think he was going for the cross-ice pass, only to roof it by Gibson. It was a high-end play by a high-end player. After the goal, BC got one great rush in, led by Nesterenko, but then did a horrible job of managing the clock and allowed Harvard's two best players to get a 2 on 1 as time expired. That time, Benson was there to bail them out, but that wouldn't be the case ten minutes later. I'm not sure what it is with this team and the end of periods- they get extremely lackadaisical and allow seemingly scores of odd-man rushes.  

Now, as for the overtime period, I have some thoughts. Quite frankly, BC got very lucky not losing five seconds into the extra frame, when Harvard had a point-blank chance, only for Benson to make another save. It was right off the opening face-off and BC just left a man wide open. 

The winning goal, I mean, I can't believe how badly BC mismanaged the clock. The Eagles had the puck in the waning seconds of the period- they were just fiddling around with it at their blue line while Harvard played prevent defense. Furthermore, BC could have put Gauthier on the ice, but opted to go in another direction instead. With about sixteen seconds left in the period, Gustafsson darted in from center ice and got a shot on net, but no one was there for the rebound. Burke tried to pin down Harvard's defenseman, who eventually took hold of the rebound from Gustafsson's shot, but the puck got out to center ice for Alex Laferriere, who dished it to Marek Hejduk for the game winner. 

If you watch the replay of the game winner, one of BC's forwards (you can see for yourself) just did not pick up his man in the neutral zone before the goal. I don't know how long of a shift this player had before the goal, but it was just a massive mistake to make at that point in the game. Furthermore, I have no idea why BC didn't wait until there were like seven or eight seconds left on the clock before they made their last dash. Not only did they not wait, but their last shot was also from just inside the blue line on a 1 on 2- those aren't going in very often! Obviously, it is easy for me to sit here and say they should have just let Gauthier take one up the boards as time expired, but I would have liked to see him out there at the end of OT. 

Certainly, that is one of the toughest losses I can remember. It really felt like they were going to win that game given the way they played in the third period, but it just wasn't meant to be. Give Harvard credit- they made the winning play. It was strange because the first period was like men against boys- BC couldn't even get the puck into the Harvard end. By the end of the game, things had flipped as Harvard was absolutely gassed, mostly because they played those top two lines seemingly the entire night. Unfortunately, BC just could not take advantage. 

Right now, there is one glaring issue with this team that absolutely has to be fixed at some point- their penalty kill. They have been unable to win three games in the past month squarely because of their inability to keep the opponent off the scoreboard during the man advantage- the second Vermont game, @ Lowell, and this one. Now, you're never going to be perfect on the man down and expecting that would be utterly ludicrous, but they have to be better than they are at the moment. I have no doubt that they'll improve towards the end of the season here, but right now they're losing games because of it.

The man down isn't the only problem in my mind- they still turn the puck over far too often, especially at the end of periods. They had all the momentum in the world after tying the game, but then give up a 2 on 1 to Harvard's two best players on the very next shift. Lastly, they need better play on the blue line. Eamon Powell was really good once again and Marshall Warren was solid, but after that BC didn't get a ton out of their back end. They need some guys to step up in that department. 

All of that said, I hope people continue to have a positive outlook on this program going forward. I feel a lot better about the state of BC hockey today than I did during this tournament last year. Look, playing in the consolation game for the third year in a row stinks, but we were extremely spoiled from 2008 to 2016 in terms of how BC fared in this event that drives us all nuts. I appreciate the way this team competes night in and night out- they still make a lot of frustrating mistakes and they don't have a ton of firepower, but you can count on them to bring it and that's, quite honestly, all you can really ask for at this point. Trust me, the tables will start to turn for BC hockey sooner rather than later.  

Onto Maine. Go Eagles.