There’s still a little more than a month of hockey to play, and Harvard finds itself in a good place after sweeping an ECAC series for the first time this season.
The Crimson moved within a point of the league lead after ending Clarkson’s nation-leading, eight-game winning streak with a 4-3 overtime triumph on Friday and then routing St. Lawrence, 7-3. Head coach Ted Donato’s club, which has won three straight games, now looks to keep things rolling into February, March, and beyond.
“I think we've been playing the right way for a while now, but it's good to finally feel like we're getting the bounces to get us a weekend sweep,” senior co-captain Lewis Zerter-Gossage said. “Just our depth and the maturity that a lot of the young guys are playing with now is exciting. If we can manage our play, I think there’s a really high ceiling for this team and we can beat any team in the country.”
Nine Crimson players scored goals and 17 recorded points during the two-win weekend, including sophomore Jack Badini who scored twice and then assisted on defenseman Reilly Walsh’s (Andover, N.H.) game-winning goal against Clarkson. Six skaters logged multiple points and five six defensemen found the scoresheet in the St. Lawrence game alone.
Those numbers, a freshman class that still averages three points per game, and senior Michael Lackey’s 37-save effort over the two games have Donato feeling good entering Friday night’s final tuneup for the Beanpot against Dartmouth.
And the coach thinks there’s room to grow, too.
“Two points in this league can be the difference between three or four spots in the standings, so it was a good win for us,” said Donato. “We had a great week of practice and had a great weekend. Hopefully we can follow it up and keep building. …
“I think we have the type of team that has the capability of improving a great deal throughout the year. We’re starting to string some wins together and be more consistent game in and game out.”
River Hawks, Falcons flying high
UMass Lowell’s three-point weekend against Boston College and Bentley’s road sweep of Canisius have both teams entering the month of February on seven-game unbeaten streaks that are tied for the nation’s longest.
The River Hawks, who are 6-0-1 during that span, sit four points back of the top spot in Hockey East with a game in hand on three of the four teams around them. The Falcons have won three straight and gone 5-0-2 in the last seven games, including six in Atlantic Hockey play; every team ahead of sixth-place Bentley has played more league games.
For Bentley, sophomore Luke Santerno had four points on the weekend, including a goal during Saturday’s 3-1 win. The native of Smithers, British Columbia, stands as one of only six players in the league averaging more than a point per game.
Behind Lowell and Bentley among teams with the nation’s longest running unbeaten streaks is New Hampshire, which extended its streak to five games (3-0-2) with Saturday’s 6-0 win over UConn. UNH junior Liam Blackburn still owns the longest scoring run in the nation as he has logged 21 of his 24 points over the last 15 games.
Bruno stays hot
Brown also finished January in the midst of a hot streak, posting a four-point weekend on the road against Rensselaer and Union to improve to 7-3 over its last 10 games. Clarkson (9-1) and Cornell (7-2-1) are the only ECAC teams with as many or more wins than the Bears in that span, which began with the team holding only a 2-6-3 overall record.
Head coach Brendan Whittet’s team is finding wins of all shapes and sizes. The first, which came on Dec. 8 at RPI, and most recent were decided by one goal. In three others, the Bears scored five, six, and seven goals.
Brown is only 4-for-33 on the power play and 29-for-36 killing penalties while averaging 1.7 fewer shots on goal per game than its opponents during the streak, but it all came together for a Friday shutout against the Engineers as junior Brent Beaudoin (Londonderry, N.H.) scored twice in the third period and Gavin Nieto made all 19 saves.
In Saturday’s 3-2 win over the Dutchmen, freshman Jake Harris scored a tying goal in the first period and assisted on classmate Michael Maloney’s game-winner with 3:32 remaining.
Swayman’s saves
Bruins prospect Jeremy Swayman continues to be the goaltending workhorse during his sophomore year at Maine and made a career-high 53 saves en route to Saturday’s 4-3 win over No. 2 UMass. He stopped 17 pucks in both the first and third periods and a game-high 19 in the second period of his ninth win this season, including one on UMass sophomore John Leonard’s (Amherst, Mass.) attempted penalty shot to keep the score tied at 1-1.
The Anchorage, Alaska, native stopped more than 40 shots on four occasions earlier this season. He has now amassed his previous high of 50 on Dec. 8, 2017 at Quinnipiac.
Loose pucks
― Providence senior Hayden Hawkey stopped 53 of the 54 shots he faced during a weekend sweep against Northeastern, capping the series with a 34-save road shutout. He has five shutouts on the season and tied former national champion Jon Gillies (South Portland, Maine) for the school record with the 13th clean sheet of his career, while his 63 career wins are two shy of another Friar benchmark.
― Vermont nabbed back-to-back Hockey East wins for the first time all season against Merrimack and climbed out of the cellar with the sweep. Sophomore Max Kaufman scored his second game-winning goal this season with 1:20 to play in Saturday’s 4-3 overtime triumph. Friday’s 5-1 win included a first collegiate goal and two points from Dallas Comeau.
― Sacred Heart’s Nick Boyagian continued to make his mark after not dressing for eight of his first 12 collegiate games. The East Greenbush, N.Y., native, who has now played in 11 consecutive contests for the Pioneers, notched his second multiple-point game of the season with a goal and two assists in Friday’s 5-2 win over Holy Cross.
― Joel Farabee became the first Boston University player to log two game-winning goals on the season, doing so as part of a two-goal effort in Friday’s 4-2 win over Arizona State. The Hockey East Rookie of the Week from Cicero, N.Y., also had two assists against Merrimack.
― Maine sophomore Emil Westerlund doubled his season point total with three points during a split with UMass, including one goal in each game. The native of Sweden scored the opening goal in Saturday’s win. Westerlund has logged five of his six points in the last 10 games.
