BURLINGTON, Vt. - Senior Kyle Medvec registered a goal and an assist and Rob Madore turned aside 28 of 29 shots as the Catamounts defeated Harvard 3-1 in the final game of the Sheraton/TD Bank Catamount Cup on Saturday at Gutterson Fieldhouse.
Senior Kevan Miller tallied his first goal of the season and Freshman Connor Brickley tallied third goal for Vermont, while Nick Bruneteau had two assists on the night.
Miller's goal came at 12:30 of the second period to break a scoreless tie when the captain took a feed from Wahsontiio Stacey from at the top of the right circle. Miller unleashed a low slap shot that traveled through traffic and beat Harvard goaltender Kyle Richter. Nick Bruneteau picked up his first assist of the night on the play.
The Catamounts struck again when Chris McCarthy controlled the puck in the Harvard defensive zone and laced a pass to the Medvec. Medvec received the puck at the top of the left circle and fired shot that slid under the pads of Kyle Richter at 17:10 of the second frame. The goal stood as the eventual game-winner.
Vermont scored its final goal of the game at 4:59, when Medvec took a shot from the middle of the left circle that Richter had trouble controlling. The puck bounced and found the stick of Connor Brickley batted the puck out of mid-air into the back of the net for his third goal of the year. Bruneteau began the play and picked up his team leading 10th assist of the year on the play.
"Nick Bruneteau had a couple nice plays in there," said coach Kevin Sneddon. "I think it's great that they're (defensemen) starting to add some offense in there for us, but I'm really pleased that we did a good job of minimizing grade-A opportunities during the five-on-five; so that's probably the brightest spot of the weekend was that we played pretty tenacious defense." Sneddon said of his team.
Harvard spoiled the clean sheet for Madore at 12:25 of the third period when Alex Killorn notched his second goal of the tournament, as he beat the Catamount netminder glove side from the right circle. Danny Biega and Chris Huxley collected assists for the Crimson on the play.
Madore (28 saves) picked up the win as the Catamounts improve to 3-10-4 on the year, while Richter (23 saves) and the Crimson fall to 3-9-0.
The Catamounts sent three players to the All-Tournament Team and collected all three stars of the game. Medvec (1g, 1a) was awarded the player of the game, while Madore was the second star and Miller was the third star.
SHERATON/TD BANK CATAMOUNT CUP ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Alex Killorn, Harvard
Rob Madore, Vermont
Kevan Miller, Vermont
Nick Bruneteau, Vermont
Peter Boyd, Ohio State
Danny Dries, Ohio State (MVP)
Vermont returns to action when it hosts No. 11 Boston University in the first of three meetings in the regular season series Sunday, Jan. 9 in a game televised on CBS College Sports at 7:05 p.m. at Gutterson Fieldhouse.
CBS College Sports is channel 613 on DirecTV and channel 152 on Dish Network. Please check your local listings for the channel in your area if you do not have DirecTV or Dish. Wednesday's game marks one of 16 times that the Catamounts will play on TV this season.
NOTES: Check back to www.UVMathletics.com for game highlights and postgame comments from Kevin Sneddon ... Wahsontiio Stacey, Sebastian Stalberg and Nick Bruneteau all came into the contest on three game point streak ... Bruneteau has now collected five assist in the last four outings for the Green and Gold ... Vermont head coach Kevin Sneddon and Harvard head coach Ted Donato were teammates when Harvard won the national championship in 1989 ... Sneddon's record against his alma-matter, since joining Vermont is 2-4-2 and against his former teammate is 1-2-1 ... Stacey has a four game point streak ... Kevin Miller and Rob Madore have both made the All-Tournament team twice in their career.