Ohio Hockey Classic Consolation St. Cloud State Beats Harvard, 4-1, Behind Lasch’s Hat Trick – Ohio State Buckeyes
12/30/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
COLUMBUS, Ohio Led by a hat trick from sophomore Ryan Lasch, No. 16 St. Cloud State downed No. 15 Harvard in the third-place game of the Ohio Hockey Classic Sunday in Value City Arena in Columbus. St. Cloud State led 1-0 at the end of the second period before the Crimson tied the game just 1:01 into the third. St. Cloud State then scored twice in 21 seconds to regain the lead for good.
The teams were scoreless until Lasch tallied his first goal of the game on the power play 18:26 into the second period. St. Cloud State had 10 shots in both the first and second periods, while Harvard put 10 shots on net in each stanza.
Harvard’s Pelle tied the game at 1 with a power-play tally 1:01 into the third. St. Cloud went ahead on Lasch’s power-play score at 9:48 and John Swanson followed with an even-strength tally at 10:09. Lasch almost completed his hat trick with about 4 minutes remaining, but his shot rang off the crossbar. He then tallied his third goal of the game with 27 seconds remaining, scoring after Harvard had pulled goalie Kyle Richter. The Huskies outshot the Crimson in the period, 13-11.
For the game, Richter made 29 saves in 58:08 in net for the Crimson. St. Cloud’s Dan Dunn had 28 stops in 59:51. St. Cloud outshot Harvard, 33-29.
The Huskies converted 2-of-6 power-play chances and Harvard was 1-for-5 with the man advantage.
Lasch’s hat trick was the first of his career and the first in Ohio Hockey Classic history. Andreas Nodl had three assists to set the tournament record.
Harvard postgame quotes
Ted Donato, head coach
On the game
“I have to give credit to St. Cloud, they’re a great team and are well-coached. We had far too many penalties. And when you play a team at that skill level, they are eventually going to get to you. We have to do a better job of staying out of the box.”
“I thought we battled well in the second-half of the first period. We played pretty well in the second as well even though we were down a goal. Then we gave them a power play and it didn’t take long for them to get one.”
On the team
“I think we were better than last night, but we’re not where we need to be. We were better, though. The coaches and myself knew that after our exam break we needed to take a big step forward and I think we did play better today.”
St. Cloud State postgame quotes
Bob Motzko, head coach
On the Ohio Hockey Classic
“Ohio State did a great job with the tournament. It was a great experience for our players and fun for them to stay downtown.”
On St. Cloud State
“I thought we played well this weekend. We didn’t like the outcome yesterday because we needed to score one more goal and we did today. Our guys got into the flow and all four lines were moving. I felt we came in and represented the WCHA well.”
Ryan Lasch, sophomore forward
On the win
“We had a gameplan and stuck to our objectives. We have a lot of options out there when we are on the power play.”
On his first-career hat trick
“I had a couple two goal games so it’s nice to get the monkey off my back.”
