Freshman Conor Morrison was standing by the left post to redirect the puck into the net and cut Northeastern’s lead in half, 2-1.
Harvard outshot the Huskies in the second frame by a 15-9 count, but the momentum gathered in the period wasn’t sustained through intermission.
“In the third period, it was a combination of Northeastern wearing us down and us running out of gas,” Donato said. “Give Northeastern a lot of credit, but for us, the bench got too short, too soon.”
Harvard’s weariness started to show early in the period, when freshman David Valek was whistled for hitting from behind. A minute into the ensuing power play, the Huskies bumped their advantage up to two.
Northeastern freshman Garrett Vermeersch wound up for a hard slapshot from the blue line that was deflected in by junior Wade MacLeod. Kyle Kraemer had the secondary assist.
“I thought we were a little sloppy early, but I like the way we played the third period,” Cronin said.
After MacLeod’s tally, the Huskies controlled the game, peppering Carroll with pucks. The junior netminder stood up to the pressure, making a series of split saves and a beauty of a glove nab on a on a wide-open McNeely shot.
Donato pulled Carroll, who finished with 30 saves, from the net with just under two minutes to play, and it didn’t take long for Northeastern to take advantage.
MacLeod got the puck just inside the blue line and rifled a shot that found nothing but the empty net.
“I think it was fortunate that we had a lot of energy in the third period, and we were obviously reinforced by our goaltending,” Cronin said.
Husky rookie Chris Rawlings stood up exceedingly well to the pressure of his first Beanpot tournament, allowing just three goals on 63 shots between last night’s game and last Monday’s 2-1 loss to Boston University.
But for Harvard, the loss simply sends the tired squad back to the drawing board as it prepares for the home stretch of the regular season.
“Obviously, we’re disappointed,” Donato said. “[We’ve played] a lot of hockey over the last four or five days, and I think it kind of caught up with us.”
—Staff writer Kate Leist can be reached at kleist@fas.harvard.edu.