“It’s not a good song when you’re the visiting team,” he said.
JUMP
Leaman shortened the Union bench to three lines, hoping to battle Harvard’s team speed by going with his fastest players. “[Last time] they had so much speed against us by stretching us out,” he said.
But after the game, Leaman said he thought the plan had backfired, as his players became fatigued late in the third period—just as they began to get better man-advantage chances.
“When we were getting the power play at the end, there, I thought the guys just didn’t have a lot of jump,” Leaman said. “They were tired.”
Harvard’s penalty kill for the night was perfect, as the Crimson foiled power play attempts in the second and third periods, and stopped a 6-on-5 at the end of the game.
“As far as their penalty kill, I thought they just outworked us,” Leaman said. “It wasn’t so much in their defensive zone. It was in the neutral ice and on their forecheck. We just didn’t have the jump to really get up the ice and go against them.”
—Staff writer Timothy M. McDonald can be reached at tmcdonal@fas.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer Alex McPhillips can be reached at rmcphill@fas.harvard.edu.