SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The high-flying Harvard attack led by Jimmy Vesey showed up Saturday night. Unfortunately for the Crimson, it came too little, too late.
Omaha blitzed Harvard with two first-period goals, then survived a Crimson barrage in the third to move on to the Midwest Regional final with a 4-1 victory at Compton Family Ice Arena.
[scg_html_mw2015]UNO (19-12-6) dictated a first period bookended by goals from Grant Gallo and Avery Peterson and held on despite 19 third-period shots from the Crimson (21-13-3).
“We’re pretty excited with the way we played tonight,” Mavericks defenseman Brian O’Rourke said. “It was a great game. I thought both teams showed up with a lot of speed and a lot of jam.”
After a stalemate of a second period, Vesey finally plugged one in early in the third, but that was all he and his teammates could produce. Ryan Massa (33 saves) and the defensemen in front of him kept the Crimson from getting any closer.
“If there’s one guy I don’t want the puck to land on his stick, it’s [Vesey],” Massa said of the 32-goal scorer. “He’s quite a player. I don’t think we’ve played a guy this year that can control the game like he did.
“He made a great play at a pivotal point of the game,” Massa added. “But our guys buckled down after that. He had one chance late in the game with a quick release, and I was just able to get my hand down on it and then our guys cleared out the trash in front.”
Late empty-net goals from Tyler Vesel and Jake Guentzel put the comeback bid out of reach.
UNO won its first NCAA tournament game after two previous first-round exits, while Harvard lost its seventh straight NCAA game.
“Obviously, we’re disappointed,” said Harvard coach Ted Donato. “I thought our guys, with all their hearts, battled all the way to the end. Plenty of chances, but [Omaha] made the plays when they needed them and they deserve a lot of credit for that.”
The fast pace started early for the Mavericks. They quickly captured momentum and took the early lead when Gallo got his stick on a loose puck next to the pad of Steve Michalek (25 saves).
“I thought the first 10 minutes set the tone of the game whether we scored or not,” UNO coach Dean Blais said.
[photoshelter-gallery g_id=”G0000hp9xkggFHzk” g_name=”20150328-OMAHA-HARVARD-Kelley” f_show_caption=”t” f_show_slidenum=”t” img_title=”casc” pho_credit=”iptc” f_link=”t” f_bbar=”t” fsvis=”f” width=”500″ height=”375″ bgcolor=”#AAAAAA” bgtrans=”t” btype=”old” bcolor=”#CCCCCC” crop=”f” trans=”xfade” tbs=”4000″ f_ap=”t” linkdest=”c” f_fullscreen=”f” f_constrain=”f” twoup=”f” f_topbar=”f” f_bbarbig=”” f_htmllinks=”f” f_enable_embed_btn=”f” f_show_watermark=”f” f_send_to_friend_btn=”f” f_smooth=”f” f_mtrx=”f” f_up=”f” target=”_self” wmds=”llQ6QNgpeC.p1Ucz7U.f22AHktcpsgA2GwXPPEVzri503wM71WbgLNlZFjXzEFSEag27yQ–” ]Then, in the waning seconds of the period, Avery Peterson sniped a five-on-three goal from the left point to punctuate the dominating period at 19:58.
“It was pretty frustrating heading into the locker room,” Harvard defenseman Max Everson said. “It’s not ever the ending of a period you want. You want those shifts to be strong.”
UNO clamped down hard on that lead and wouldn’t give it up until the third. But then the Crimson came out of the third-period gates with a vengeance.
“I couldn’t be prouder of this group,” Donato said. “The perseverance and the toughness of just staying with it. Every single guy believed coming out of that locker room down 2-0 that we were going to come back in the game.”
Vesey finished a rebound at 3:09 of the third, and from that point on Harvard took control, out-chancing the Mavericks 25-9. But the valiant effort got the Crimson no closer.
“I think we were trying to be too cute with some of our shots and we missed the net and missed a lot of opportunities,” Donato said.
The roller coaster of a Harvard season is over. But the bar is set for this resurgent and historic program.
“We’re extremely proud of each other as a group, what we accomplished this year,” Everson said. “I thought we played a good game and left it all out there. In a one-game elimination, sometimes you don’t get the result you want. Couldn’t be more honored to play with this group of guys. Couldn’t be more proud of the guys I dressed next to every day. It was a heck of a season.”
