Early in last night’s Beanpot consolation game between Harvard University and Northeastern University, it became clear that the Crimson hadn’t come simply to win. They had come to make a statement.
And make a statement they did. Playing in their eighth-straight Beanpot consolation game, the No. 18 Crimson netted three second-period goals and got a shutout for backup goalie Justin Tobe to cruise to a 5-0 victory – and avoid their third-straight last-place Beanpot finish.
And though it may not have been much consolation for a Harvard squad that nearly came from behind to knock off BU in last Monday’s first round, it was a game that the Crimson – still very much alive in their hunt for an NCAA Tournament berth – could ill afford to lose.
“This game was very important for us,” said Harvard coach Ted Donato, noting the importance every game has on postseason factors such as RPI and Pair-Wise rankings. “A loss would have been devastating.”
Harvard seemed to take that knowledge to heart early, peppering Northeastern goalie Adam Geragosian with 19 shots in the first 11 minutes while holding the Huskies to only one. One of those shots – a Ryan Maki power play strike just three and a half minutes into the game – found the back of the net, giving Harvard an early lead that it would never relinquish.
“We tried to simplify things, throw a lot more pucks at the net,” Donato said. “We knew that we weren’t going to score by shooting less.”
Northeastern slowed the Crimson attack down a bit in the second half of the first period, not allowing another shot for the rest of the frame. But Harvard came roaring back in the second, netting three straight goals to take a commanding four-goal lead.
Freshman Steve Rolecek struck first, scoring his first career goal when a Nick Coskren wrister bounced off Geregosian in front of the net, hit off the rookie winger’s back and bounced untouched into the corner of the goal.
Coskren followed with a goal of his own a minute and half before the second intermission, and sophomore winger Jon Pelle netted a one-timer from Dave Watters 41 seconds later to give Harvard a commanding 4-0 lead.
Pelle – who also assisted on Maki’s first-period goal – had the favor returned midway through the third period, when he flipped the rebound from a Maki shot past Geregosian and into the top corner of the net to provide the final margin.
The offense was more than enough for Tobe, who was told this morning that he would get the start due to lingering injuries to regular starter John Daigneau. Tobe responded, stopping all 24 Northeastern shots.
“Obviously I was excited, it’s just a nice opportunity to feel like you contribute to the team,” Tobe said. “It was a great game to come into. The team scored an early goal, which takes a lot of pressure off. The forwards and defense both made my job pretty easy tonight.”
And Tobe’s efforts squelched any possibility of an upset from a Northeastern team struggling through the final stretch of a two-win season. The Huskies could never get much going offensively, following up on their Beanpot near-miss of a year ago with a much poorer showing this time around.
“It’s been an ugly year for us, it’s been tough,” said Northeastern coach Greg Cronin. “You can look at it as an opportunity to turn a real ugly season into kind of a Cinderella story, but it never happened.”