Paul Dufault turned in a three-point effort with a pair of goals and an assist, and the Harvard power play finished 4-for-6, as the Crimson posted a 6-4 win over No. 17 Colgate Saturday night at Bright Hockey Center.
Harvard took a 6-1 lead at 7:14 of the third period, but the Raiders answered back with three goals in 1:50 to cut the lead to 6-4. The Crimson held on for the final eight minutes to close out the win and halt Colgate’s five-game winning streak. Harvard improves to 3-2-0 overall and 3-2-0 in the ECACHL. Colgate drops to 6-2-0 overall (3-1-0).
The Raiders opened the scoring at 5:47 of the first period. Jessie Winchester fed Tyler Burton and he fired a shot from the low slot into the back of the net with a second assist from Jon Smyth.
That was the last time that Colgate would see the scoreboard until the 9:05 mark of the final period as Harvard answered with six-straight goals.
The Crimson capitalized on its second power-play chance of the game to knot the score at 1-1. Tom Walsh blasted a shot from the point, and Ryan Maki tried to stuff home the rebound. The second rebound came out to the right side of the net and Dufault stuffed it home for his second goal of the season.
Harvard took the lead just over a minute later. David MacDonald cleared the puck up the right side to Charlie Johnson, and he fired a shot on Colgate netminder Mark Dakanich. The rebound went out to Steve Mandes at the right face off circle and he beat Dekanich for the 2-1 lead.
The Crimson took command in the second, putting three more goals up on the board, the first coming just 32 seconds into the period. Dan Murphy finished off some tape-to-tape passing from Kevin Du and Jon Pelle to give Harvard a 3-1 lead with its third power-play goal of the night.
Dufault potted his second power-play goal of the evening at 14:22 with assists from Dave Watters and Walsh, driving Dekanich from the game.
Mike Taylor made it 5-1 in favor of the hosts with the eventual game winner at 18:12 of the third period. Du and MacDonald assisted on the goal.
Brian McCafferty scored his first goal of the season at 7:14 of the final period. Maki fed Dufault from behind the goal, and hit McCafferty across the crease on the right post. He parked it in a wide-open right side of the net for Harvard’s fourth power-play goal of the evening.
Colgate battled back with three power play goals in less than two minutes. Winchester cut the lead to 6-2 at 9:05 off of assists from Smyth and Kyle Wilson.
Colgate earned a five-on-three power play at the 10:56 mark of the third period and cashed in 14 seconds later. Marc Fulton one-timed a pass from Mike Campaner past John Daigneay to make it 6-3.
The Raiders made it a two-goal deficit with a goal from Wilson at 11:55. Smyth and Fulton registered the assists on the goal.
Harvard finished with a 37-25 edge in shots on goal. Colgate closed out the game 3-for-8 on the power play.
Daigneau stopped 21 shots to improve to 3-1-0 this season. Dekanich left the game after making 21 saves. Kowalkoski finished his relief duties with 11 stops and took the loss.
Harvard will be back in action Tuesday night when it travels to cross-town rival Boston College for a 7:30 p.m. meeting. Colgate will return home to face Rensselaer and Union next weekend.
