The car accident on Sunday night that sidelined seniors Peter McLaughlin and Brad Konik denied the Harvard men's hockey team the chance to celebrate a Beanpot victory at the FleetCenter.
After months of anticipation, the Crimson (10-10-1, 9-5-1 ECAC) fell to Northeastern (9-13-4) in the tournament's opening round, 4-1.
The loss means that Harvard will face Boston College (12-13-3), which fell to Boston University by the same score, in the tournament's consolation game, while the Terriers will face the Huskies in the championship match-up. Both games will be played on February 13th.
Despite the setback, the Crimson remains in contention for its other goal, an ECAC title. Currently, Harvard is third in the conference standings, trailing only St. Lawrence and Vermont, and its performance this weekend proved it should not be counted out.
Freshman forward Rob Millar was named ECAC Rookie of the Week for his role in Harvard's two victories. He scored his first collegiate goal in a 4-3 defeat of RPI (7-15-2, 5-8-1) on Friday night, and followed this performance by tallying a hat trick in a 6-0 blanking of Union (5-13-4, 2-9-3).
Crimson freshman Peter Zackowich guarded the goal against Union, and his flawless performance was the first shutout of his collegiate career.
League-leading St. Lawrence (15-8-1, 11-2-1) was busy compiling records of its own. As the Saints crushed Dartmouth (4-15-2, 3-10-1) 7-4 on Friday night, forward Derek Ladouceur became the first Division I player to record six assists in a game this year.
This performance earned Ladouceur the ECAC Player of the Week award.
But St. Lawrence could not repeat this performance against Vermont (16-5-3, 10-2-2) on Saturday night. The second-place Catamounts moved themselves closer to first by bumping off the Saints, 6-3. Forward Eric Perrin registered a hat trick in the victory.
But Vermont was also unable to capitalize twice in the same weekend. Friday they fell to Clarkson (15-7-2, 9-4-1), as only Perrin was able to find the back of the net in the 5-1 loss.
Unlike the conference leaders, Clarkson emerged victorious on both weekend nights, knocking off Dartmouth on Saturday, 4-3.
Brown (7-7-7, 4-5-5) tied an ECAC record for ties in a single season when its Friday matchup against Union ended in a 2-2 stalemate.
The Bears have not been able to score in extra periods, as all of their overtime contests have ended in a tie. Saturday they fared better, however, in a 4-1 victory over RPI.
Friday night's contest between Cornell (11-7-3, 8-3-3) and Princeton (4-15-3, 2-11-2) also went into overtime before the Big Red could finish off the Tigers, 3-2. Cornell then travelled to New Haven to down Yale (6-17-0, 3-11-0), 6-4.
Yale fans did not have much to cheer about, as their team had already fallen to Colgate (12-10-2, 8-4-2) on Friday night, 6-1.
The Red Raiders also could not sustain this momentum, however, in losing to the Tigers, 4-3, a day later. The Princeton victory broke a ten-game winless streak dating from December 8.
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