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Struggling to score is unfamiliar territory for the Harvard men’s ice hockey team. After ranking second or better in the ECAC in goals-per-game in each of the last two seasons, the Crimson ranks last of the 12 teams so far this season, checking in with a 1.78 goals-per-game average. Harvard has been held to one goal or fewer in five of its nine games so far this season.
The team’s season-long search for offensive consistency reared its head this weekend on the Crimson’s trip to upstate New York, where the squad failed to score a single goal in losses to Clarkson and St. Lawrence on Friday and Saturday, respectively. With injuries, especially on defense, beginning to mount, Harvard will be hard-pressed to work through its offensive struggles over the upcoming nearly month-long break.
“Obviously not the result we wanted for both games,” junior forward and captain Zakary Karpa said. “We’re obviously losing a lot of guys right now, so we're just gonna have to regroup after this weekend and then use this time off to get healthy again and have a better second half.”
The Crimson has held its own against top teams this season, defeating Cornell, the ECAC’s second-best team, while losing close games to UMass and Boston College, both of whom are ranked in the national top-10. However, Harvard hasn’t been able to capture any momentum from those games, and it is sitting on only one win after nine games. While its power play ranks 13th in the country at a 23.1% conversion rate, the Crimson has only scored 10 goals at even strength.
“We can play the best teams in the country when we play our system and play together,” Karpa said. “We just need to generate more offensively. So I think we just need to stick together as a group and we'll have a better result going forward.”
St. Lawrence 2, Harvard 0
Harvard’s depth was tested on Saturday night against St. Lawrence, as junior Luke Khozozian saw his first action since 2021-2022, playing as a defenseman despite being officially listed as a forward. Upperclassmen defensemen Jack Bar, Kyle Aucoin, and Ian Moore all sat out Saturday’s game due to injury, but the Crimson’s inexperienced defense corps and sophomore goaltender Aku Koskenvuo were able to keep Harvard competitive.
“The biggest thing for us right now is we just gotta get healthy. We're missing a lot of guys on the back end,” sophomore forward Joe Miller said. “Everybody’s banged up.”
The Saints got off to a strong start, as forward Gunnar Thoreson tallied his first career goal on a wrist shot from above the circle four minutes into the first period. St. Lawrence was very successful at limiting the Crimson’s chances at even strength in the first period, holding it to four shots on goal that were all gobbled up by goaltender Ben Kraws, giving the Saints a narrow advantage heading into the second period.
In an evenly-played second period, each team recorded 10 shots on goal as the offenses traded chances. St. Lawrence started the period with a series of strong shifts, but Harvard regained momentum and controlled the puck in the middle of the period. However, the Saints blocked six shots in the 20 minutes of action, keeping the Crimson off the board heading into the final period.
Just as in the first period, St. Lawrence struck quickly in the third, with forward Josh Boyer deflecting defenseman Maison Waite’s shot from the left-wing boards past Koskenvuo to double the home team’s advantage to 2-0.
Harvard did not go away quietly, posting 14 shots on Kraws in the final 20 minutes. However, the team’s usually potent power play was extinguished on its only opportunity of the game halfway through the third period. The Crimson had some quality opportunities with Koskenvuo pulled with under three minutes to play, but Kraws, along with the Saints’ shot-blocking prowess, kept Harvard out of the net, sending the Crimson to its second straight shutout loss.
“I think it's a really positive thing to see this team doesn’t give up on games, even like tonight, they score in the third period and make it 2-0 and I felt we elevated our game to another level,” Miller said. “Regardless of what the score is, I don't think we give up and I think that's a great characteristic that we have as a team.”
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Clarkson 3, Harvard 0
As has been the case through the season, senior goaltender Derek Mullahy played an outstanding game, especially in the first period, where he stopped 11 of 12 shots, including a fabulous glove save on forward Cody Monds. However, the Golden Knights took an early lead midway through the first period when forward Ryan Taylor deflected a shot from the point past Mullahy.
The Crimson had a chance to respond on a power play soon after, but Clarkson goalie Austin Roden denied all four Harvard shots on goal, and the Crimson could not generate further offense at even strength, leaving the deficit at one after the first period.
“As a young team, we just got to focus on learning how to control the puck down low, really possessing it in the zone, and then getting to the front of the net, especially in our league where it's really tough to score goals against these bigger, older teams,” Miller said.
The Golden Knights got off to a fast start in the second period, when forward Erik Bargholtz capitalized off of a Crimson turnover from behind the net and slapped home a rebound to extend the Clarkson lead to 2-0.
Harvard’s power play had two opportunities in the middle of the period to cut into the deficit, but the Crimson failed to take advantage. Sophomore defenseman Ryan Healey, earning extended time on the top power play unit due to junior defenseman and captain Ian Moore’s injury, made a series of quality passes to set up shots for his teammates. But Roden was up to the task, keeping Harvard at bay and down by two goals heading into the third period.
“We had a lot of good looks. We just didn't get a lot of bounces on the power play,” Karpa said.
Without a power play opportunity in the third period to aid the comeback effort, the Crimson struggled to generate offense at even strength, mustering only three shots on goal in the final 20 minutes of action. Harvard only generated one shot attempt when it pulled its goalie with under three minutes to play, and Bargholtz scored his second of the night into the empty net with just over a minute to play to secure the 3-0 shutout.
Harvard will travel to Princeton for its next game on Dec. 30, before heading to Storrs, Conn. on New Years’ Eve for a game against the UConn Huskies. The Crimson will then kick off 2024 with a trip to Tempe, Ariz. for the Desert Hockey Classic.
-Staff writer Bridget T. Sands can be reached at bridget.sands@thecrimson.com
-Staff writer Aaron B. Shuchman can be reached at aaron.shuchman@thecrimson.com
