Ted Donato, the Harvard coach, was more pleased with his team's efforts on Saturday than Friday. Harvard lost both games to the Gophers, 5-2 and 3-1.
"Certainly we did a better job [Saturday] than we did {Friday] night," Donato said. "The shots [for Minnesota] were still up, but the quality of chances were not there as much as [the first] night."
The Gophers had 46 shots in the first game, 43 in the second.
Sophomore winter Nick Larson had seven of those shots on Saturday and scored twice. His first goal in the middle of the second period went off a Harvard player's skate. It gave the Gophers a 2-1 lead. His second goal came seconds into the third period. He scored while being tripped into the Crimson goalie.
"Minnesota has had a lot of tough breaks with pucks going in off of people's feet so I am sure they felt it was there time to get one," Donato said. "That's tough to swallow.
"Give them a lot of credit. They got a lot of speed and skill up front and they move the puck. They made it tough for us. They deserved to win the game. But I was proud of our guys. I thought we worked hard and did a lot of things much better than [Friday] night.
"They got their second goal on a little bit of a fluke. So going into the third, I thought we would get some chances but it is always tougher when the other team scores on the first shift. It just makes the hill a little bit steeper."
