Harvard rolls past Union 4-1

Box Score

by Ryan Fay

A hat trick from Ryan Donato powered Harvard to a 4-1 ECAC Hockey victory over Union Saturday at the Bright-Landry Center.

Union's Eli Lichtenwald played in his 100th career
game on Saturday.
photo: Union College athletics

With the win, the ninth-ranked Crimson snapped a 12-game winless streak against Union dating back to Feb. 13, 2010. Harvard was 0-9-3 during the streak.

The loss leaves Union five points behind eighth-place Cornell for the final home ice spot in the first round of the league tournament with four regular season games left. The Big Red lost to Yale 4-2.

Donato gave Harvard a 1-0 lead at 17:50 of the first period with the first of his three goals. The Crimson (14-8-3 overall, 10-5-3 ECACH) extended their lead to 3-0 with a pair of power-play tallies late in the second.

Sean Malone made it 2-0 at 16:49, one second before a slashing penalty on J.C. Brassard was set to expire. Donato picked up his second goal of the night at 19:55, 10 seconds into a hooking penalty on Matt Wilkins.

Wilkins redeemed himself 31 seconds into the third when he tipped in a shot from Nick DeSimone to cut the Crimson lead to 3-1. But Donato iced the win and secured his first career hat trick with an empty-netter with 39 seconds left in regulation.

Sakellaropoulos made 17 saves on 20 shots before being replaced by Jake Kupsky following Donato's goal late in the second. Kupsky stopped all eight shots he faced the rest of the way.

Merrick Madsen finished with 24 stops for Harvard, which outshot Union 29-25.

Harvard finished 2-for-4 on the power-play, while Union went 0-for-3.

The Dutchmen (11-11-8, 4-9-5) resume action next Friday at home against Princeton.

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