CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Men's hockey is set to open the 2026 ECAC playoffs against St. Lawrence on Friday night at 7:00 p.m.
The sixth-seeded Crimson will face the 11th-seeded Saints in the opening round, with the winner advancing to the three-game quarterfinals next weekend. In the final home game of the season at Bright-Landry, the Crimson finished the regular season just outside of a first-round bye.
PUCK DROP
- The Crimson and Saints will face off in a single-elimination matchup at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, with the game streaming live on ESPN+.
- If the Crimson advance on Friday, they will most likely travel to Ithaca to play Cornell in a three-game quarterfinal series — pending any upsets.
LAST TIME OUT
- The Crimson beat Princeton on Friday night, earning a 5-3 win over the Tigers to set up a chance to secure a bye on Saturday night.
- Down 3-1 in the second period, Mick Thompson, Heikki Ruohonen, and Justin Solovey all scored to eventually put Harvard ahead, while Mason Langenbrunner hit the empty net to seal the deal.
- Harvard fell to No. 7 Quinnipiac on Senior Night by a score of 4-1, with Heikki Ruohonen netting the only goal of the game for the Crimson.
CRIMSON AND SAINTS IN THE PLAYOFFS
- At puck drop on Friday night, it will mark the first time since 2020 that the Crimson and Saints have met in the ECAC playoffs.
- Hosting the Skating Saints for the ECAC quarterfinals in 2020, Harvard won Game 1 by a score of 5-3 before a 7-1 clincher on Saturday night.
- Dating back to 2000, the two have only met four times in the playoffs.
- Harvard has not lost a round to St. Lawrence since 1995.
- The Saints came out victorious in their first ECAC playoff meeting in 1961.
- Since then, Harvard has advanced in all seven meetings.
SERIES HISTORY
- Harvard swept the North Country trip earlier this season for the first time since 2022-23 after a 2-1 win over Clarkson and a 4-3 win over St. Lawrence.
- The Crimson completed the season sweep over both Clarkson and St. Lawrence in January with another 2-1 win over Clarkson and a 5-1 win over the Saints.
- Dating back to 2016, Harvard has only lost to the Skating Saints twice, most recently a 2-0 loss at Appleton in 2023.
- Harvard is 16-2-2 in its last 20 matchups and has only lost once in the last 10 meetings with St. Lawrence.
- Harvard leads the all-time series against St. Lawrence, 70-45-9.
CRIMSON AGAINST THE SAINTS
- Phil Tresca has seven points in seven career games against the Saints.
- Mick Thompson has five assists and a goal in four career games.
- Thompson, Severo, and Tresca have all recorded a point in each of the last three games against the Saints.
- Ben Charette has never lost to the Saints in his career, posting a 3-0-1 record. The sophomore netminder has allowed just six goals in four games and recorded a 31-save shutout in their first meeting.
CRIMSON IN THE PLAYOFFS
- Joe Miller leads the Crimson with 10 points in 11 conference tournament games.
- Mick Thompson started his playoff career with six points in four games last season.
- Miller and Thompson both had stellar starts to the playoffs last season after a 5-2 win over RPI, with each forward adding three points.
OPENING ROUND SUCCESS
- Harvard has played in the ECAC opening round in each of the last three seasons.
- The Crimson defeated RPI 5-2 last season and Princeton 1-0 the year before.
- Harvard has advanced to the ECAC quarterfinals in nine straight seasons.
MORE MORDY
- Junior defenseman Matt Morden has recorded 13 of his 18 points this season over the last 15 games.
- Over this stretch, the two-way defender has four goals and 10 assists.
- He is one of only four defensemen in the conference to have four multi-point games since the start of the new year.
- Morden leads all Crimson skaters with 13 points since Jan. 1.
WELCOME BACK HEIKKI
- In his return to the lineup after missing five games with an injury, first-year Heikki Ruohonen made an immediate impact for the Crimson.
- Netting two goals over the weekend, Ruohonen tied the game against Princeton in the third period and gave Harvard the lead against Quinnipiac on Saturday.
- This season, four of his five goals have either tied the game or given the Crimson the lead.
SENIOR STABILITY
- All six members of the senior class have played more than 100 career games — a feat that has not been accomplished by any class dating back to at least 2002.
CLUTCH CASEY
- In 2023-24, seven of Casey Severo's eight goals either tied the game, cut the deficit to one, or gave Harvard the lead.
- In 2024-25, 10 of his 16 goals tied the game or gave the Crimson the lead, with two more extending the lead to two.
- Over the past three seasons, 21 of his 33 goals have been go-ahead, game-tying, or deficit-cutting tallies.
- Entering the weekend, Severo has eight game-winning goals in his career, which is tied for third dating back to 2002 and trails only Jimmy Vesey, Kyle Criscuolo, Tyler Moy, and Alex Killorn.
HEALEY MAKING HIS MARK
- Dating back to 2002, Ryan is one of only 10 Harvard defensemen to accumulate 50+ points.
- His 19 career goals rank fourth among defensemen, trailing only Danny Biega, Riley Walsh, and Adam Fox.
JUMBO JOE
- Miller is one of only 10 Crimson players to record 90+ career points dating back to 2002.
CHUTDOWN CHEVY
- Ben Charette helped backstop the second four-game win streak of the season for the Crimson after stopping 103 of 106 shots over a stretch of four games in seven days.
- From the third period of the game against Clarkson to the third period of the game against Colgate a week later, the sophomore netminder did not allow a goal, marking a streak of 135 consecutive minutes without allowing one — the most since the 2012-13 season.
THREE TWENTY-FIVE
- Ted Donato became the winningest coach in program history with his 325th career win on Dec. 3 against Brown.
- Donato is one of just seven active coaches with 325-plus career victories.
- He passed Ralph "Cooney" Weiland for second all-time in program history following last season's opening-round playoff win against RPI.
- Donato ranks 49th all-time in NCAA history in career victories, with only 10 active coaches owning more wins.
INTERNATIONAL CRIM
- Heikki Ruohonen returns after competing in the IIHF World Junior Championships with the Finnish National Team.
- Ruohonen earned Player of the Game honors after scoring the game-tying goal against the United States in the quarterfinals.
- Finland finished fourth after falling to Canada in the bronze medal game.
- An alternate captain in his second U20 tournament, Ruohonen posted three goals and six assists in seven games in Minneapolis.
- Across two World Junior tournaments, he has recorded 17 points in 14 games.
SHORTHANDED SPECIAL
- Mick Thompson and Richard Gallant each scored shorthanded goals against Dartmouth.
- It marked Harvard's first shorthanded goals of the season.
- Dating back to 1947, Harvard has scored two shorthanded goals in a game just four times.
- The last instance came when Ryan Donato and Sean Malone both scored shorthanded goals.
- The Crimson also accomplished the feat twice during the 2016 season, including the opener against ASU.
CARDIAC CRIMSON
- Harvard scored three unanswered goals in under eight minutes to force overtime against No. 1 Michigan.
- The comeback marked the first time since the 2022-23 season that the Crimson erased a three-goal third-period deficit to tie a game.
THE 729
- The line of Philip Tresca, Casey Severo, and Mick Thompson has been highly productive since forming late last season.
- After coming together in the 25th game of last season, the trio produced 34 points over the final 10 games.
- This season, the line has totaled 61 points through 30 games, giving them 95 points over their last 40 games.
MICKY THREES
- Mick Thompson recorded the fifth and sixth three-point games of his career earlier this season.
- The Ontario native has all six three-point games within his last 13 games.
- Since 2002-03, Thompson ranks eighth among Crimson skaters who have recorded multiple three-point games through just 37 career games.
- Those ahead of him are Adam Fox (97 career games), Casey Dornbach (131 career games), Sean Malone (115 career games), current Crimson forward Joe Miller, Sean Farrell (58 career games), Nick Abruzzese (59 career games), and Tyler Moy (131 career games).
ROOKIE RESURGENCE
