John Daigneau recorded 32 saves to lead No. 15 Harvard to Thursday night’s 1-0 victory against 12th-ranked New Hampshire at the Whittemore Center.
UNH, which had won six straight in the series including last year’s meeting in the NCAA tournament, is now 8-6-3 overall. Harvard, which had not won in Durham since Dec. 1988 (0-2-0 since then), improved to 9-4-1 with its first shutout of the Wildcats in 29 meetings.
Harvard netted the game’s only goal on defenseman Brian McCafferty’s second tally of the season to take a 1-0 lead into the first intermission. Kevin Du and Jimmy Fraser were credited with assists on the goal, which was potted off a rebound in front at 5:27 of the first period.
In a scoreless second stanza, Harvard went 0-for-3 on the power play but was outshot by the Wildcats, who did not have a skater advantage in the period, by a 7-5 margin.
In the third period, Daigneau robbed Jerry Pollastrone, who was deep in the right circle, by deflecting a high shot to the near side away with his glove as the ‘Cats were skating on the power play six minutes into the stanza. Daigneau made another strong save with 4:30 remaining in the game when he slid from the right post to the top of the crease to deny Thomas Fortney from the low slot.
The Wildcats called a timeout with 39.3 seconds to play and pulled goaltender Kevin Regan in favor of an extra skater. Immediately off the faceoff, Brian Yandle fired a low shot from the top of the slot that Daigneau snared. UNH gained control of the puck on the ensuing faceoff, but a pass back to the point sailed into the neutral zone.
The ‘Cats re-entered the offensive zone with 20 seconds on the clock and Daigneau stopped a shot from the right doorstep by Josh Ciocco. Harvard was whistled for a penalty with :03 remaining and called a timeout. UNH’s Daniel Winnik drew the puck back to the left point but time expired before any shot could be attempted.
Regan finished with 19 saves, eight of which came in the third period. Daigneau recorded half of his 32 saves in the first period.
