CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – A furious third period come back by Harvard men's ice hockey (18-9-3) helped lift the Crimson to a 4-3 OT win over Rensselaer (17-22-3) in Game 1 of an ECAC Hockey Quarterfinal series on Friday night (March 11).
Harvard scored three extra attacker goals in the final 3:42 of regulation to force overtime and set up senior
Jack Donato's game-winner at 2:00 of the extra frame to give the Crimson a resounding 4-3 win over RPI.
Trailing 3-0 late in the third period, Harvard's offense finally broke through against RPI goaltender Jack Watson (42 saves) on a point shot by senior defenseman
Marshall Rifai through traffic with 3:42 to play.
With under two minutes to go, a faceoff win led to a point shot by defenseman
Ryan Siedem, again through a screen and into the net at 18:02 to make it 3-2.
In the final minute, first-year
Matthew Coronato crashed the net for a rebound with :15 to go to stun the Engineers and send the game to overtime.
Donato won it by tipping a shot from the point off the stick of junior defenseman
Henry Thrun past Watson, sending the Harvard bench onto the ice to celebrate.
The visiting Engineers got on the scoreboard first with an early power play, as Ture Linden finished off a series of passes with a well-placed shot in the slot at 12:42 to give RPI a 1-0 lead.
Linden scored an even strength goal at 5:29 of the second period, ringing a shot off the post to make it 2-0.
Then an early third period goal by Rory Herrman at 2:07 put Harvard in a dire position before its late come back.
Harvard Highlights
Game Notes
- Harvard improved to 13-0-0 when scoring four or more goals in a game.
- Harvard won its first overtime contest of the season.
- Harvard improved to 7-0 in its last seven playoff games on home ice.
- Harvard outshot RPI 46-24 for the night.
