The Union College men’s hockey team had not played in 28 games. Harvard was playing its second game in a week.

It showed in the first period on Saturday at the Bright-Landry Hockey Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The 19th-ranked Crimson took advantage of the Dutch’s efforts to regain their skating legs and scored three times, including two in 51 seconds, to move towards a 4-1 victory in CEAC hockey.

“I thought the first half, [Harvard] really came out and established the identity of the game, ”said Union head coach Rick Bennett. “It took us a while to get our legs back. At that time, the score was 3-zip. You are just fighting an uphill battle.

“We were able to play with them for two periods. The first half really hurt us. We have not been able to capitalize. We made a good effort. I’m not saying it was a bit too late because it is only the first period knowing your down. But when you’re 3-zip against a really good hockey team, it’s really an uphill battle that you’re going to lose more times than you’re going to win.

Union (3-5-1 ECACH, 8 points; 5-10-3 overall) are winless in their last four games. It was the Dutchman’s first game since a 4-3 loss to Maine on December 11. Union was scheduled to play a two-game series last weekend against UMass, but those games have been postponed due to Dutch health and safety protocols. The Dutch were due to play at Dartmouth on Friday but that game was postponed as Dartmouth was in health and safety protocols.

The Crimson (6-2-1, 20 points; 8-4-1), who rose to first place with the win, took a 1-0 lead midway through the first period when Sean Farrell broke away from the boards of the right wing. to the right circle, then fired a shot past the right side of goaltender Connor Murphy.

Nick Abruzzese scored a power-play goal with 2:24 remaining to make it 2-0. Then, at 1:33 to go, Alex Gaffney scored.

At one point, the shots on goal were 7-6 in favor of Harvard. After that, the Crimson had nine of the last 10 shots of the period.

The score stayed that way until the end of the second period when Josh Kosack, coming out of the penalty area after serving a charge penalty, caught a pass from Tyler Watkins and broke into the breakaway. Kosack tackled goaltender Mitchell Gibson and dropped a backhand with 20 seconds left, giving Union some momentum heading into the third period.

“That’s how they felt in the locker room,” Bennett said. “They were excited. You could see it.

Henry Thrun sealed the Crimson’s victory late in the third period when his right-circle shot deflected Union defenseman Ryan Sidorski’s stick and rebounded on Murphy.

Murphy finished with 36 saves.

Union is expected to resume operations next weekend when it visits St. Lawrence on Friday and Clarkson on Saturday.

Union 0 1 0 – 1
Harvard 3 0 1 – 4
First period – 1, Harvard, Farrell 8 (Wong, Abruzzese), 9:43. 2, Harvard, Abruzzese 5 (Farrell, Thrun), 17:36 (pp). 3, Harvard, Gaffney 2 (Laferrière, bar), 18:27. Penalties – Ferguson, Uni (holding), 5:12 pm.

Second period – 4, Union, Kosack 2 (Watkins), 19:40. Penalties – Kelly, Uni (tenant), 4:55; Ferguson, Uni (cross-reference), 10:08 am; Gaffney, Har (cutting), 12:01; Kosack, Uni (charge), 17:34.

Third period – 5, Harvard, Thrun 3 (Wong), 14:26. Sanctions – Hodge, Uni, minor misconduct (brutal violence), 19:40; Drkulec, Har (cutting), 19:40; Lyons, Har, minor foul (brutal violence), 19:40.

Penalty Shootout – Union 7-7-6 – 20. Harvard 16-11-13 – 40.

Power Play Opportunities – Union 0 of 2; Harvard 1 of 4.

Goalkeepers – Union, Murphy 5-9-2 (40 shots-36 saves). Harvard, Gibson 6-4-0 (20-19).

A-250.

Referees – William Brennan III, Brad LeBlanc. Linesmen – Taylor Larson, Stephen Drain.

RPI WOMEN BEAT BROWN
At the Meehan Auditorium in Providence, Rhode Island, Maddy Peterson scored two goals to lead the RPI to a 4-1 victory in CEAC women’s hockey over Brown.
The Engineers (4-8-0 ECACH, 13 points) split the weekend’s two-game series. Brown won Friday’s game 2-1.

Saturday’s game was originally scheduled to be played on February 5 at Houston Field House. But after RPI’s scheduled Saturday game at Yale was postponed due to Yale’s program health and safety protocols, the decision was made to have the Engineers play Brown for a second time.

Mika Jahnke and Marah Wagner also scored for RPI Engineers goaltender Amanda Rampado made 31 saves.

RPI 1 1 2 – 4
Brown 0 0 1 – 1
First period – 1, RPI, Peterson (Blitz), 7:56. Penalties – Papineau, RPI (boarding), 5:25.

Second period – 2, RPI, Jahnke (Alexander, Severson), 2:27. Penalties – Price, RPI (slashing), 6:39; Severson, RPI (body control), 11:17; Feedback, RPI (interference), 4:38 PM.

Third period – 3, RPI, Wagner (Dalby),: 29. 4, Brown, Gross (Paoillo, Bjornson), 15:07. 5, RPI, Peterson (Erbenova), 19:28. Penalties – None.

Penalty Shootout – RPI 8-8-5 – 21. Maine 15-8-9 – 32.

Power Play Opportunities – 0 of 0 RPI; Brown 0 out of 4.

Goalkeepers – RPI, Rampado (32 shots-31 saves). Brown, Kliczko (20-17).

A-106.

Referees – Jason Galofaro, Alexander Bergeron. Linesmen – Chad Gouin, Matthew Berg.

Categories: University sports, Sports