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On Sunday, while many students returned to campus following spring break, the No. 6 Harvard men’s hockey team sat in their loss from the night before for almost six hours on a grueling bus ride back from Lake Placid, N.Y. The night before, the team fought to defend its Whitelaw Cup title as ECAC champions approximately 300 miles away from campus, ultimately falling short in a narrow 3-2 loss to the Colgate Raiders.

“I don't think we played our best and [we] ended up chasing the game against a team that really played well and made some key plays, made some key saves,” head coach Ted Donato ’91 commented. “As much as we really pushed in the second half of the game and had plenty of opportunities, chasing the game is never a great recipe to have success.”

Finishing second in the ECAC standings in the regular season with an 18-4-0 record and 49 conference points, the Crimson earned a bye in the first round of the tournament and home-ice advantage for the quarterfinals. The weekend of March 10, Harvard welcomed the Princeton Tigers to Bright-Landry Hockey Center for a three-game series.

In dominant fashion, the Crimson advanced to the semifinals in two games, winning both by a score of 6-1. Junior forward Alex Lafarierre recorded two multi-goal games, senior goalkeeper Mitchell Gibson saved 65 of 67 shots on the weekend, and junior forward Sean Farrell reached a milestone of 50 points on the season.

After sweeping Princeton, Harvard headed north to Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid, N.Y., the site of the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” and the traditional host of the ECAC semifinals and championship game. The Crimson took on the No. 10 Cornell Big Red in Friday’s second semifinal, the game delayed over an hour and a half due to the Raiders’ double-overtime upset of the No. 2 Quinnipiac Bobcats.

The Harvard-Cornell matchup brought the best of men’s Ivy League hockey, with both teams shutting down their opposition’s usual dominant offense. Neither team found the twine in regulation, as Gibson posted 15 saves while Cornell goaltender Ian Shane rejected 20. It wasn’t until 4:28 into overtime that Laferriere closed things out. In a sequence of beautiful passing from first-year forward Joe Miller and senior forward and captain Baker Shore, Laferriere received the final feed and fired from the top of the left circle, triggering the final horn.

“I think it shows the versatility that we have as a team,” Farinacci said. “We can put up a lot of goals, but we can also win those close low scoring games that I think are super important at this time of the year.”

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The Crimson returned to the ice for the final game of the tournament on Saturday against Colgate. Harvard entered the game seeking to defend its ECAC title, which it stole from conference favorite Quinnipiac last year in a dramatic 3-2 OT win. The Crimson were also riding a 9-0-1 game streak, its best run since 2016-17. The Raiders entered Saturday needing a victory to secure an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament, while also bearing responsibility for one of Harvard’s four conference losses of the campaign.

Colgate, having beaten the tournament’s top seeded Quinnipiac Bobcats the night before, continued their momentum, striking first and striking fast. Within the first minute of the game, Laferriere was called for interference. The Crimson’s penalty kill is usually one of the strongest in the country, ranked 17th in success percentage pre-game. However, it was unable to neutralize Colgate’s man-up advantage, as forward Colton Young found the top corner behind Gibson and put the Raiders up 1-0 just a minute into the game.

“We just weren't as sharp as we needed to be, [we had] a breakdown on their power play goal,” Donato said. “In a one game set, you need that combination of getting off to a good start, good special teams, and excellent goaltending. We're very aware of that and unfortunately, we didn't play well enough on Saturday in those areas.”

Colgate continued its dominance over the next 12 minute stretch, outshooting Harvard 15-7. The rush climaxed when Alex Young, brother of Colton, gained control of the puck in his own defensive zone, and took it coast to coast, getting the puck past Gibson and putting the Raiders up by two.

Following Alex Young’s goal, Harvard’s top line of sophomore forward Matthew Coronato, sophomore forward Zakary Karpa, and Farrell drew a hooking call, and the Crimson got a power play of its own. Despite putting up six shots, four on goal, Harvard was unable to cut into the deficit. The Crimson were given another opportunity just a minute later, as AlexYoung was called for interference, but the power play was cold again. In the minute of even-strength play remaining in the period, neither team added to the score, and Harvard was sent into the first intermission down two.

“We weren't the hungrier team early on in the game,” Donato observed. “That's something that we got to really make sure that we're focused on -– that we have a good start.”

The second period began with more of the same. The Raiders recorded five shots, four direct and saved by Gibson, in the first five minutes. After surviving Colgate’s first push, Harvard gained control of the puck and started a rush of its own. After a Laferriere shot was blocked by Ross Mitton, Miller picked up the deflection to the right of the goal, and sent it cross-ice to senior defenseman and captain Henry Thrun. Thrun subsequently brought it to the top of the left circle, and shot. His wrister found the open space to the left of Raiders goalie Carter Gylander, the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, and put the Crimson within a goal with 14 minutes left in the second.

After Harvard’s offense finally broke through, the Crimson continued the momentum. In the first rush after Thurn’s goal, Harvard held possession in its offensive zone and put up seven shots, of which the Raiders defense blocked five. Shot blocking was key to Colgate’s defensive success, as the Raiders got in the way of 36 Crimson shot attempts on the night.

After a Miller shot missed, the Raiders controlled possession and brought the puck to the opposite side of the rink. In a progression of quick passing, Nick Anderson attempted to pass the puck from behind the goal to Levi Glasman on the rush. Anderson’s pass went airborne, and Glasman’s stick caught the soaring puck, sending it into the goal before Gibson could track it across the crease’s airspace. Coach Donato challenged the play for a potential penalty, though the goal was upheld and the Raiders went up 3-1.

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In the remaining ten minutes, the Crimson picked up its offensive aggression right where it left off before Glassman’s tally, outshooting Colgate 21-4, on goal 6-1. The Raiders’ defense blocked a whopping nine of the attempts, the remaining six missing wide, and the Crimson once again headed into intermission down two goals.

Harvard carried the recharged energy into the third, dominating both possession time and scoring chances. Coronato was slashed at 5:28 into the period, giving the Crimson another chance at a power play, but the unit again struggled to move the puck effectively. Continuing the aggression, in the rush following, Alex Young knocked Farrell down with his stick, and was sent to the box for hooking. On its fourth and final power play opportunity of the night, Harvard finally capitalized. Coronato finished a rebound from a shot by Farinacci, scoring his 22nd goal of the season to cut the lead to one with seven minutes remaining in regulation.

“It could have been easy for us to get frustrated and roll over there on that last powerplay,” Farinacci said. “We were able to stick with it and get a goal in a big spot with about seven minutes left.”

In the last seven minutes, the Crimson gave it all it had. The offense put up 20 shots, six saved by Gylander and eight blocked by the Raider defense. Gibson was pulled in favor of the extra skater with just over two minutes remaining. Despite a frantic final shift of the game, none of the Harvard attempts crossed the line, and as the buzzer sounded, the Colgate Raiders were named 2022-2023 ECAC Champions.

“I think we got off to a slow start, which I think hurt us in the end trying to play from behind against a team like Colgate,” Farinacci said. “They played really well- I give a lot of credit to them.”

However, the Crimson’s season doesn’t end here, as Harvard secured an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament on the back of its strong regular season performance.

“We have more to play for and bigger hopes and dreams here at the end of the year,” Farinacci commented. “[We’ve got] Friday to look forward to – it should be a lot of fun.”

The Crimson will take on the No. 8 Ohio State Buckeyes on Friday, March 24th at 2 pm at Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, CT.

-Staff Writer Bridget T. Sands can be reached at bridget.sands@thecrimson.com