CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Harvard had not felt the comforts of home in just over two months before its Friday night ECAC contest with RPI, but the confines of Bright-Landry Hockey Center treated the Crimson well in their first game following a record nine-game road stretch.
Senior goaltender Merrick Madsen made 32 saves and a two-goal first period proved to be more than enough as the Crimson pitched a 3-0 shutout, improving to 6-6-1 on the season and 5-3-0 in league play.
“It felt like it was the beginning of the season again because it had been so long,” said Harvard head coach Ted Donato, whose team is now 4-1-1 in its last six games. “It’s tough when you’re on the road early in the year that much, especially with a young team, but I feel like we’re starting to figure out how we need to play.
“I don’t think the game had the same kind of energy and offensive chances that we’re accustomed to, but I thought we did a pretty good job of limiting their opportunities and capitalizing on some of ours. Therefore, we didn’t really need to reach much.”
Ryan Donato was named the ECAC and Hockey Commissioners Association National Player of the Month after an eight-goal, 10-point outburst in December, but the junior did not let a new calendar year stop him from lifting the Crimson to a fast start in the first period.
Donato netted his team-leading 13th goal of the season at the 10:11 mark before sophomore Ty-Pelton Byce doubled the Harvard lead to two goals with 3:22 left before intermission.
After defenseman Reilly Walsh tipped the puck into the zone and onto the stick of Donato’s linemate Lewis Zerter-Gossage on the right wing, Donato received a pass and flicked a wrister high over Linden Marshall, who has started nine of RPI’s last 10 games in goal as a rookie.
“I think it was good to play with a lead,” Ted Donato said. “Although (RPI’s) record is probably not the way they’d like, there are a lot of good things going on, and they’ve played good games against some good teams. We wanted to come out and dictate how the game was going to be played, I think Ryan’s goal definitely got us off on the right foot.”
Another rookie set up Harvard’s second goal as Jack Badini who fired a turnaround shot off Marshall’s pads that bounced back into the right crease, where Pelton-Byce pounced on the loose puck to score his second goal in as many games and third of the season.
Although the Crimson held a two-goal lead after the first period, Madsen was busy and came up big on multiple occasions to keep the visitors off the scoreboard. He made double-digit stops in each of the first two periods en route to his 10th career shutout and 50th win with the Crimson.
“Sometimes, you have to recognize what kind of play you’re getting from your goaltender, and he looked very solid tonight; it looked like there was a good chance that three would hold up,” Ted Donato said. “He had some ups and downs in the first portion of the season, but this was another real strong effort. It’s important we get strong play out of that position.”
Two of the Californian native senior’s key stops came within the first seven minutes as he denied Max Reisinger’s wrister that developed off a blocked shot and then a puck that turned over to RPI assistant captain Viktor Liljegren in the slot.
“When you’re getting a shutout, you’re definitely giving your team a chance to win, and that’s obviously my goal first and foremost,” Madsen said. “It’s a testament to me trying to get back to my game, too. I feel really sharp right now and want to keep staying in that groove.”
Jack Badini added Harvard’s third and final goal just 1:58 into the middle frame, beating Marshall upstairs from the left wing circle after creating a turnover. It was his fourth goal of the season.
The loss was RPI’s fifth straight since a Dec. 1 triumph over Yale and fourth this season in shutout fashion, but it was one that came with positives. For one, Marshall made 39 saves and held Harvard scoreless in a 14-shot third period.
“I thought we played hard, I thought we played well; we got off to a really good start, had a good power play. We’re doing a lot of really good things,” RPI coach Dave Smith said. “I thought we handled momentum very well. When they scored, we battled back and played properly, but just missed some goals.”
