Frozen pipes KO Crimson
Late goal ruins title hopes with Harvard
CHICAGO — Harvard coach Ted Donato didn’t need a score sheet, a glance at the clock, or any other clue to express what had just befallen his team.
“The end was so sudden there, with hitting the posts three times there, I think, in the last 25 seconds, it’s really just hard to describe,” he said.
A season filled with victories and titles, including the ECAC regular season crown, ECAC playoff tournament title, the Beanpot championship and the NCAA East Regional final, highlighted by an 18-game unbeaten streak — the longest since Northern Michigan’s 24 games without a loss in in 1991 — kindled hopes for the Crimson’s first national championship since 1989.
Those dreams were shattered with 26.6 seconds to go in regulation play as Minnesota-Duluth left winger Alex Iafallo steered a pass from defenseman Willie Raskob between the leg pads of Harvard goalie Merrick Madsen and the Bulldogs held on for a 2-1 win over the Crimson in a Frozen Four semifinal last night at the United Center.
Minnesota-Duluth (28-67) plays the winner of last night’s late semifinal between Denver and Notre Dame in the NCAA Frozen Four title game tomorrow night.
“It was a good pass by Joey (Anderson). We kept it in at the blue line and that was pretty much the key to the play, and (Raskob) made a good play getting the puck to the net,” said Iafallo after his game-winner put his season total at a neat 20 goals and 50 points. “We do it in practice all the time, so simple things like that. All I had to do was shovel it in. It all worked out.”
Madsen, who had won back-to-back Most Outstanding Player honors in the ECAC and regional tournaments, could only look to the rafters in disbelief as none of his other 36 saves mattered at that point.
Harvard (28-6-2) came out of its subsequent timeout with senior center Sean Malone striking the crossbar with three seconds to go, followed by senior left winger Luke Esposito rifling the rebound off the right post with 2.9 seconds on the clock, both shots coming from the left circle.
“I mean, obviously, it was a little heartbreaking when they scored that goal with 26 seconds to play. Everything happened so fast,” said Harvard’s Alexander Kerfoot. “We had opportunities to score there at the end, hit a couple of posts. We took it to them. It wasn’t meant to be.”
The Bulldogs came out playing the body in an attempt to slow down the speedy Crimson. Raskob leveled Esposito exiting the Crimson zone and the Harvard senior picked up a retaliatory penalty at the opposite end for boarding. Minnesota-Duluth pressured Madsen, who was forced to make stops on Anderson and Iafallo while shorting out the Bulldogs’ early man-power shortage.
Minnesota-Duluth controlled the early zone time, winning 13-of-17 faceoffs to that point, and keeping slow-starting Harvard, in its first Frozen Four appearance since 1994, back on its heels.
It all changed when Minnesota-Duluth’s Kyle Osterberg was sent off for hooking at 14:25. During the power play, it was Kerfoot who made the critical play, sending a cross-slot pass over to Tyler Moy in the left circle. The pass was tipped by Bulldogs defenseman Brenden Kotyk, slowing the puck enough to allow Moy to tee it up. The senior ripped a shot into the far corner on Minnesota-Duluth goalie Hunter Miska (39 saves) at 15:00. It gave Moy a teambest 22 goals and tied with Kerfoot in points with 45.
The period was winding down when MinnesotaDuluth struck to knot the score. Following a draw to Madsen’s right, the puck squirted to Anderson in the mid-slot. It appeared that his 25-foot shot glanced off the body of Harvard defenseman Jacob Olson and changed direction. It was Anderson’s 12th goal and came at 18:24.