Harvard upset No. 17 Princeton (11-6-0 ECAC) 3-0 as goaltender Kyle Richter made 33 saves and Harvard starting center Doug Rogers netted his first career hat trick.
After a scoreless first period, Princeton iced the puck early in the second and the Crimson took advantage off the faceoff. Center Doug Rogers, who has four goals and two assists in his past two games, netted his first goal of the night 2:03 into the second period.
Princeton responded quickly after Harvard took two penalties, capitalizing on the two-man advantage when junior Lee Jubinville pushed the rebound from a Mike Moore shot into the net, ending the Crimsons’ record of 13 straight successful penalty kills.
“We spent so much time in the box in the second period that two things happen,” said Harvard coach Ted Donato. “One, it keeps some of our best players off the ice, and two, some of our best players are so tired from trying to kill penalties that its tough to turn around and go straight to offense. There are times when I think penalties are necessary certainly to save goals but looking at the penalties we took they are not good penalties and we need to be much more disciplined if we think we are going to beat teams down the stretch here.”
Rogers netted his second of the night, the first even strength goal of the game, 2:20 into the third off a pass through the crease from Mike Taylor. Eleven seconds after Princeton’s Jody Pederson went off for contact to the head, Rogers scored his third goal of the night.
“I think we’re happy with the win, we were fortunate, we had an extraordinary effort by a handful of guys our penalty kill and our goaltender.,” said Donato. “Doug’s just been playing very well for us and he’s come up with some big plays for us today. Mike Taylor’s been playing exceptional lately and that lines been very good, and I give Princeton a lot of credit”
Princeton returns to ECAC action tomorrow night against Dartmouth College while the Crimson return to ECAC action tomorrow night against No. 16 Quinnipiac.
