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CANTON, N.Y. — “The whole group has to be better.”

So said a visibly frustrated Ted Donato ’91 Friday night, emphasizing the need for his side to “play with an intensity that’s necessary this time of year” following a 2-1 loss at Clarkson in the penultimate game of the regular season.

One night later, the skipper got what he was after.

Appearing completely rejuvenated, the No. 12/12 Harvard men’s hockey team stormed out of the gates at Appleton Arena, generating a whopping 17 shots on goal in the opening frame against No. 19/- St. Lawrence. Over the course of 60 minutes, the Crimson’s shooting pace inevitably waned, but its energy level never did, as Harvard rode two power-play goals to a tightly contested 4-1 victory over the Saints to lock up the third seed in the ECAC tournament.

With four minutes to go in regulation and the Crimson (16-9-4, 12-6-4 ECAC) clinging onto a 2-1 edge, freshman Ryan Donato delivered the dagger. Manning the point on Harvard’s fourth power play of the night, the rookie received a feed from junior Alexander Kerfoot a few feet inside the blue line and flung a slapshot through traffic past sophomore goaltender Kyle Hayton to double Harvard’s lead.

The freshman’s conversion, which was followed by a Clay Anderson empty-netter, was one of two power-play goals on the night for the Crimson. Freshman Lewis Zerter-Gossage opened the scoring with a back-door strike 4:48 into the contest with just one second remaining on Harvard’s first man advantage. Now having scored six times in its last five games, the Crimson’s power play unit ranks first in the country with a conversion rate just under 30 percent.

“I’m not upset with the way we played,” St. Lawrence coach Greg Carvel said. “We just let a good team take advantage of the areas of the game where they’re really good.”

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Despite playing most of the game from behind, the Saints (17-13-4, 11-8-3) matched Harvard shot-for-shot, creating constant havoc in front of sophomore goaltender Merrick Madsen and actually edging out the visitors with 18 shots on goal in the first period.

St. Lawrence finally saw its efforts pay off late in the second. Shortly after sophomore blue-liner Nolan Gluchowski instilled life into the Senior Night crowd by ringing the iron from the point, top-line freshman Jacob Pritchard tipped a Gavin Bayreuther shot past Madsen to cut a 2-0 deficit in half.

Still on the comeback trail, the Saints appeared to suffer a major setback midway through the third after junior Woody Hudson was given a five-minute major and a game misconduct for hitting junior Luke Esposito from behind. But down a man, St. Lawrence generated its best scoring opportunity of the night.

Three minutes into the major penalty, Anderson hooked Saints captain Brian Ward on a shorthanded break, prompting the referees to award St. Lawrence with a potential game-tying penalty shot.

Remaining primarily on his forehand, Ward skated in on Madsen, moving from right to left as he inched closer. Upon reaching point-blank range, the captain attempted to drift left and push the puck past Madsen’s right blocker, but the sophomore held his ground, coming up with the biggest of his 38 saves on the night, which tied a career-high. {shortcode-278f94be68c5c397cbc446a7119a579e1bf6ce6a}

“I thought Merrick was excellent,” Ted Donato said. “Not only was he making the saves, but he looked comfortable in there. This building is so tight that there’s really no escape for a goalie—you’re going to get it from all sorts of different angles. But I thought he was huge.”

“Not very often Hayton gets outplayed, but I thought he did tonight,” Carvel said.

Despite the missed opportunity, the Saints would complete the kill. Then moments later, penalties assessed to Harvard’s Adam Baughman and Colin Blackwell put the hosts on a minute-long 5-on-3 with 6:56 remaining. But Madsen stood tall yet again, and a hook against St. Lawrence’s Mike Marnell on the tail end of the Blackwell penalty set up Ryan Donato’s power-play strike that put the game away.

A high school center turned left winger, Ryan Donato drew from his Dexter roots a bit when the Crimson was at full strength on Saturday, taking over the centering duties on the third line with junior centers Sean Malone and Tyler Moy both out nursing lower body injuries.

“It took me a little bit at the beginning just to adjust to playing center,” Ryan Donato said. “Obviously I played it in high school, but it’s a different speed and everything like that. But once I got the hang of it, it was actually pretty enjoyable. Maybe it’s something I’ll look at in the future too.”

The team expects to have both Malone and Moy back in the lineup two weeks from now when Harvard kicks off the postseason with a best-of-three quarterfinal series at the Bright-Landry Hockey Center.

Meanwhile, with a second-period strike just inside the blue line, co-captain Jimmy Vesey pulled into a tie with Quinnipiac’s Sam Anas as the ECAC’s top goal-scorer with 21 on the season. The shot, which Vesey claimed Hayton probably never saw, proved to be the game-winner, helping the Crimson secure the third seed in the upcoming conference tournament.

“We set out to get home ice and finish as high as we could, and that goal has been achieved,” Ted Donato said. “But more importantly, we now have a chance to rest, regroup, take a deep breath. This is a group that wants to make a run here, and certainly tonight was a good test for us.”

“We wanted to go out and play against a good hockey team in a tough environment, in a competitive environment, and play well,” he added. “And I think that’s exactly what we did.”

—Staff writer Jake Meagher can be reached at jake.meagher@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @MeagherTHC.