Harvard earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament with a 4-2 downing of Colgate in the ECAC championship game (Harvard Athletic Communications).

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. – For the ninth time in program history, the Harvard men's hockey team raised the Whitelaw Cup as the ECAC Hockey tournament champion after defeating Colgate, 4-2, in the title game Saturday at the 1980 Rink in Herb Brooks Arena. The win earns No. 17/15 Harvard the ECAC's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. The NCAA will announce seedings and destinations for the regional round on ESPNU at 12 p.m. Sunday, March 22.

With nine titles, Harvard has the second most in ECAC Hockey history, trailing only Cornell's 12. The championship is the first since 2006 for the Crimson and with the automatic bid in hand, Harvard will be making its 22nd appearance in the NCAA Tournament next weekend. In 11 seasons as head coach of the Crimson, Ted Donato has led Harvard to five ECAC tournament championship games and two victories.

Following the tournament, ECAC Hockey announced that junior forward Jimmy Vesey was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. Joining him on the all-tournament team was defenseman Patrick McNally and goaltender Steve Michalek.

With two goals in the game, Jimmy Vesey improved his season total to 31. He is the first player to score at least 30 goals in single season since Mike Vukonich '91 (32) in 1990-91 and joins Tim Smith '86 (1984-85) and Lane MacDonald '89 (1988-89) at 10th in the Crimson record books. Vesey also set a new ECAC Hockey tournament record with nine goals this post-season, eclipsing Doug Marrett's (Cornell) eight set in 1973.

Steve Michalek made 30 saves against Colgate to become just the second Harvard goalie to record over 1,000 stops in a season. He'll enter the NCAA Tournament with 1,004, just 17 shy of the Harvard record. His 21 wins moves him into a tie for second most in a season with James Bailey '57, who went 21-5 in 1956-57. McNally finished the ECAC playoffs with five points on two goals and three assists, including a goal and two helpers Saturday.

The opening minutes were a physical battle with the teams trading heavy hits to set the tone. After a back-and-forth struggle through the first 12 minutes, the Crimson notched the game's first goal at 12:22. Patrick McNally carried the puck into the offensive zone sending a shot that bounced off Colgate goaltender Charlie Finn. Kyle Criscuolo dug it out from in front of the net and popped it over to Vesey who had the entire right side of the net open to slam it home.

Just under three minutes later, the Raiders scored the equalizer with Darcy Murphy potting his 11th of the season with Mike Burkowski and Joe Wilson earning the assists.

The teams headed to the first intermission with the score even at 1-1, but before the final horn, Colgate was whistled for a two-minute minor, setting Harvard up for 1:56 of power play time in the second. That man-advantage proved catamount for Harvard with Vesey pocketing his second of the night at 1:29 of the second period. Collecting the puck to the left of Finn, Vesey dangled it in front of the Raiders' netminder, deking him out to set up an easy forehand goal.

Harvard's power play struck for the second time in as many opportunities at 8:16. This time it was Patrick McNally lining up a wrister from the slot that bypassed Finn and extended Harvard's lead to 3-1. Tyler Moy and Kyle Criscuolo were credited with the helpers on the play.

In the third, Colgate closed the gap to one goal when John Lidgett scored at 12:17. Daniel Gentzler had the only assist on the goal. The Raiders continued to battle for the equalizer, but with the clock showing less than a minute to play and Finn pulled from the net, Colin Blackwell scored on the empty net to seal the title for the Crimson.