The box score from Friday night’s game certainly looks promising enough. It reveals that the Crimson offense managed 34 shots to Brown’s 20, and held a 17-3 shots advantage in the third period. In short, it reads like a recipe for a blowout.

When those statistics come on the short end of a 4-2 loss to the league’s lowliest opponent, however, they tell a completely different story. Rather than indicating offensive domination, these numbers underscore the Harvard offense’s inability to convert offensive chances, a running theme for the Crimson throughout its slumping second half of the season.

“We’re a much better hockey team than the team across the ice, yet we couldn’t find a way to win,” co-captain Dave MacDonald said. “We had 37 shot attempts in the third period with only 17 making the net, and while it’s great to have 37 attempts, we didn’t find a way to get pucks on net, [and] you don’t score if you don’t hit the net.”

Harvard seemed flat at times, especially coming out of the opening gate, as both the best offensive chances and hardest hits belonged to the Bears in the early going.

“We had opportunities but we didn’t stay the course,” said Crimson coach Ted Donato ’91, adding, “We missed the net far too often, passed up shots in shooting areas early, we allowed them to dictate the first ten minutes of the game.”

Harvard seemed especially punchless on special teams, which proved particularly important in a penalty-filled contest.

Afforded nine power-play opportunities, the Crimson was able to break through on only one.

“Our power play didn’t execute well enough,” Donato said. “Certainly early in the game we had plenty of chances and didn’t generate enough shots.”

The special-teams defense did not fare much better, surrendering a power-play score as well as a backbreaking shorthanded goal in the second period that ran the score to 3-1.

WHAT CAN BROWN DO FOR YOU?

The Bears may currently rank as one of the two worst teams in the ECAC, but when they host the Crimson, the games are never lacking in excitement. Last February, Brown and Harvard skated to a 6-6 tie at Meehan Auditorium in a contest that featured 23 penalties, five ties, three lead changes, and several fights between the two teams.

One year later (and, for the record, under a different officiating crew), the two teams came close to matching their 2007 penalties total, accruing 19 infractions this time around.

“I think Brown’s a physical team and they compete hard, and I think both team laid some very good hits, but that’s all a part of the game,” Donato said.

While proving they weren’t hesitant to blow the whistle, the officials appeared to hand out penalties on several clean plays (for example, docking the Bears’ Mike Stuart for roughing on a textbook clean hit against the boards) while missing several flagrant infractions (such as a blatant takedown by Brown’s Devin Timberlake).

The officiating, however, may not have the strangest aspect of the game. That honor goes to an unusual coaching decision by Donato, who, with his team down 4-1 in the third period, called goaltender Kyle Richter to the bench in favor of an extra skater—with 12 minutes still left to play, and no delayed penalty in effect.

“I didn’t want the guys to feel the game was over,” Donato said of the move. “I wanted to give ourselves every chance; I certainly wasn’t going to try to protect our goals against, we were trying to score a goal.”

TWO-MINUTE MINORS

Freshman Joe Smith’s third-period goal was the first of his collegiate career...Harvard attempted more shots in the third period (32) than Brown did in the entire game (31)...Bears netminder Dan Rosen had as many saves in the third (16) as Richter did in the game.

—Staff writer Daniel J. Rubin-Wills can be reached at drubin@fas.harvard.edu.