Crimson carve up Knights

PP goal from Walsh slays ECAC foe

Harvard capped off a winning weekend by riding freshman defenseman Reilly Walsh’s second period power-play goal to turn back potent Clarkson, 5-2, in front of a sold-out and enthusiastic Bright-Landry Hockey Center crowd of 3,095 last night.

The victory helped the Crimson (13-10-4, 11-6-3) clinch a first-round bye in the upcoming ECAC playoffs, which begin in two weeks.

While Clarkson (19-8-5, 11-5-4) is enjoying a superb season, currently ranked No. 7 in the all-important NCAA pairwise, the Golden Knights are mired in a seven-game winless streak (0-4-3), which coincidentally began on Jan.19 with a 6-6 tie against Harvard in Potsdam, N.Y.

Harvard used its speed and brawn to slay the Knights last night.

“That’s what you have to do against a team like Clarkson. You have to skate and match them physically because they’re physical and they can skate,” said Harvard associate head coach Paul Pearl, who handled postgame media duties because head coach Ted Donato is flying out at 5:30 a.m. today to PyeonChang, South Korea, to watch his son Ryan play for Team USA in the Olympic Games. “Without Ryan, there are two ways they could look at it: One, they could worry about who’s not here or, two, worry about who is here. These guys responded.”

Senior Merrick Madsen backstopped the win with 26 saves, as Harvard has now won its last three games by using a different goaltender.

Looking to shake his lineup, Clarkson coach Casey Jones inserted seldom-used freshman backup Nicholas Latinovich in place of sophomore Jake Kielly. The strategy backfired as Harvard pumped two early goals past Latinovich, ending his night after only 13:14 of work and forcing Kielly to come on in relief.

Harvard set the tempo from the get-go, as sophomore center Ty PeltonByce potted a rebound on the doorstep at 4:56 for his sixth goal of the season. At 13:14, sophomore defenseman John Marino sent a shot glancing off a Clarkson skate and into the net for an unassisted goal to make it 2-0. Clarkson’s Jones saw enough and switched goalies.

There were no issues at the opposite end of the building where Madsen sharply tended to his chores. The 6-foot-5 Madsen foiled Golden Knights center Nic Pierog with the right pad midway through the session. Madsen saved his best work for the final minute after Clarkson left winger Kevin Charyszyn got in tight as the first period buzzer sounded with Harvard shorthanded.

But Clarkson did connect for a power-play tally 47 seconds into the second, through sophomore Nico Sturm.

Harvard came right back as Clarkson’s Sheldon Rempal served a minor penalty. Walsh took a pass from below the goal line by Henry Bowlby and fired from inside the blue line. Harvard right winger Lewis ZerterGossage took away Kielly’s view by cutting across the goalmouth for a perfect screen. The puck landed in the net at 4:41 for Walsh’s fifth goal.

Penalties began to hurt Harvard, which surrendered another power-play goal to Sturm at 2:46 of the third. But the hosts responded on the power play when freshman center Jack Badini tipped home a shot by left winger Ben Solin at 13:52.

After Clarkson lifted its goaltender with 3:00 left Solin found the empty net at 17:58.