Harvard had 7 shot through 2 periods. In many ways a dominating performance by Yale. Lyon's first goal was soft, but he more than made up for it.
It was the usual Yale/Harvard chippy game until the third period- nothing really surprising. Whining about Lyon pushing people out of his box is well, whining. Both teams had some questionable hits that got more questionable in the 3rd.
Up until O'Gara's cheapshot, no doubt Harvard was pushing the line on trying to change the balance of a game Yale simply dominated for the first two periods. That being said, there is zero room for O'Gara hit in the game. Harvard delivered several hits from behind in the third, including Malone's, and while the refs should have called, those hits happens at times as part of the game. O'Gara's hit was not a hockey play it was a dirty/intentional shot from a great player who lost his cool. Things like that happen, they are 20 year old college kids and he was ****ed. That being said, he deserved 5 and Yale was lucky that the refs realized they had let Harvard get away with too much up until that point and retroactively gave Harvard a 2 minute minor on the same play. I wouldn't be surprised if he was suspended for another game for the shot (I'd have to see a replay to see exactly where the cross check landed).
Gotta give Allain and staff a ton of credit, they have simply dominated Harvard over the past several years. In many ways the reverse of football except that Harvard actually on the books recruits better for hockey yet players have less success both there and thereafter.
4 takeaways to date: 1. Lyon is that good. 2. Hayden has emerged as the dominating player we had hoped for (best player on the ice last night). 3. The Yale first line now looks like one of the top in the country- far better than what Harvard put out. 4. Piotrowski has come on amazingly strong and continues to improve daily (looking forward to watching that kid develop further over next 4 years- has NHL body as should thrive under Allain).
