Four minutes later, the Quakers responded when Will Koshanksy saw a wide-open lane down the middle and was able to score. Penn added another tally with 5:57 left, when Belinsky took a pass from Rob Fitzpatrick in front, and, in one motion, fired the ball past Krieger to put Penn up 4-2.
But Harvard rallied to tie the contest. At 2:31, junior Terry White took a pass on the right side, made a move around his defender, and beat Feeney for the goal. Under a minute later, freshman Peter Schwartz wrapped around the net and sent a shot under the crossbar to even the game at 4-4 heading into the final period.
“No matter what, we always fight back,” Wojcik said. “That’s a characteristic of this team during the course of the season.”
The Quakers jumped back ahead 12:16 into the fourth on a Morgan Griff goal. Neither team scored for nearly 10 minutes after that, until Griff came from behind the pipes and added his second of the contest to put Penn up, 6-4, with 2:46 remaining.
But the Crimson would not give in. With 1:51 to go, Vaughan came around the net curling left, and while being tackled, went low to beat Feeney.
After a fight for a ground ball on the ensuing faceoff gave Harvard possession, the Crimson called timeout to set up a play. The strategy session paid off, as with 52 seconds left in the game, sophomore Ryan Stevens hit Gibbons, who fired a lefty shot past Feeney that he followed with a big fist pump of jubilation.
The Crimson won the subsequent faceoff again, but Stevens missed wide left, giving Penn the final possession of regulation. But Krieger made a catch save with four seconds remaining to send the game into overtime.
“Harry played outstanding,” Wojcik said. “I’m very proud of him, he really made a number of big saves.”
In the first extra session, both goalies made tough saves, and Terry White missed wide and then turned it over on Harvard’s final two possessions, sending the game into double overtime.
Krieger made a save on a Kohart shot early in the second extra session. But Feeney responded with a save on a Gibbons attempt, returning possession to the Quakers, who won on Belinsky’s goal.
“You can’t hold them to two in the first half, seven overall and not win those games,” Vaughan said. “It’s very frustrating ... yeah, we’ve come back and made it close the last few games, but we lost, so it doesn’t mean much.”
The third consecutive Ivy loss could potentially be catastrophic to Harvard’s chances of making the four-team Ivy League tournament, and it sets up must-win games against Princeton and Yale the next two weeks. But it could take a while for the Crimson to recover from another agonizing defeat.
“This [loss] is a little different,” Vaughan said. “Our defense really buckled down and had an unbelievable day, Harry Krieger was an absolute stud in goal, and it’s just another one of those games where we didn’t get anything going, we didn’t put everything together.”
—Staff writer Scott A. Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu.