Less than 90 seconds into overtime, it was over.
Said Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni: “This is a tough loss to take.”
It was especially so because of the Crimson heroics it spoiled. Had the Harvard lead held up, everyone would be talking about the grit of Kolarik, who won the title game in double overtime last season while playing with a broken thumb and was a last-minute addition to the lineup on Saturday after missing all or part of the last five games with two different injuries.
Kolarik was hockey's equivalent of Kirk Gibson, getting one last good swing out of an ailing body to give Harvard its first lead with 3:46 left in the game.
But even before Kolarik there was Dominic Moore, arguably the best player on the ice on Saturday—or in any ECAC game this season, with all due respect to ECAC Co-Players of the Year LeNeveu and Chris Higgins of Yale.
Moore worked tirelessly throughout, finding both time and space when there was little of either to be had against the stifling Cornell defense. At last, Moore was rewarded at 8:04 of the third period, when he picked Mark McRae's pocket clean, spun in the slot and beat LeNeveu to tie the game 1-1.
Saturday, though, was not the night for this Harvard hockey team to pen a new chapter in its hallowed history book. There would be no back-to-back championships, no players tripping over one another in a spontaneous embrace after the game winner and no assistant coaches sliding onto the ice, off-balance, to greet their victorious team.
This time it was some other scraggly-faced team, wearing a different shade of carmine, that had reason to celebrate.
What now?
The Crimson, now 0-for-3 in trophy attempts this year—including the Beanpot and ECAC regular season championship—will begin a quest for greater hardware in the NCAA Regionals on Friday afternoon against No. 7 Boston University. And unlike last season, when Harvard came in as the surprise ECAC champion with a touch of just-happy-to-be-here about it, it has something to prove.
That’s because it’s gone 0-6-1 this season against tournament teams, and made its way into the NCAAs thanks to a combination of an expanded 16-team tournament, strong play against ECAC teams and an almost-perfect scenario coming out of the CCHA, Hockey East and WCHA tournaments that knocked other contending teams out of consideration for at-large bids.
Things have fallen into place quite nicely for the Crimson, and it’s very safe to say that if Harvard loses to BU on Friday—as it has done twice already this season—it will be a disappointment. The Crimson needs a big win to validate its season. The coaches know it, and the players know it. They nearly got it on Saturday. Their next big chance is this weekend.
That's not to say, of course, that BU is ripe to be beaten. The Terriers are a great tournament team. They won each of the three in-season tournaments in which they played this season (the Ice Breaker, Great Lakes Invitational and Beanpot) and are battle-tested after playing three overtime periods in the Hockey East Final Four. Their coach, Jack Parker, is experienced and will have his team ready to play. And Sean Fields has proven himself to be a great big-game goaltender this season.
Harvard, as a No. 3 seed, would probably match up better with any of the other No. 2 seeds (Boston College, Ferris State or Maine) than with BU, whose strength—much like Cornell’s—is along the boards. It won’t be easy.
At the same time, the Crimson can’t argue with the opportunity it has. The Terriers are a huge intracity rival, the stakes are high and the game is being contested close to the two campuses, so the crowd is sure to be strong. Sounds like Beanpot redux.
So to get to the Frozen Four—which Moore said has been the team's goal all season long—Harvard first has to take care of the big-name school from five miles down the road. How fitting.
—Staff writer Jon Paul Morosi can be reached at morosi@fas.harvard.edu.