Matt Coronato’s college season ends with one-sided Harvard loss to Ohio State
By Ryan Pike
1 year agoThe sophomore college season for Calgary Flames top prospect (and 2021 first-round pick) Matt Coronato has ended. Unfortunately for the Harvard Crimson, their season ended via a very one-sided 8-1 loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes in the NCAA national tournament.
The waiting game regarding whether Coronato joins the Flames this season will now begin in earnest.
The NCAA tournament is a single-elimination affair. A bad game (or a hot goalie) can completely derail a season. Unfortunately for Harvard, they ran into both.
- Bolstered by a strong defensive effort by the players in front of him, Ohio State netminder Jakub Dobes was excellent.
- Stymied by Ohio State’s defensive structure, Harvard just didn’t have it. They were out-shot 17-3 in the first period and were down 8-0 by the time they scored a third period power play goal to break up Dobes’ shutout bid.
Simply put, it did not go well for Harvard, and so they will not advance in the tournament.
Coronato was minus-3 with zero points in the game. He finishes his sophomore season with 20 goals 36 points over 34 games.
The two questions now, and they’re interrelated, are if Coronato signs with the Flames and when. The Flames are understandably very interested in signing the player – he’s quite good – and so they’re expected to make a big pitch to him, including giving him the opportunity to play in NHL games.
Coronato would not need to play in NHL games to burn the first season of his NHL deal immediately. But he’d obviously want to play NHL games, and so some type of assurances would likely be needed in order to get him to put pen to paper. (If he signed an NHL deal, he wouldn’t be able to go to the AHL, too; for the remainder of this season, it’s one or the other.)
We’ll have more on the Coronato situation as it continues to develop.
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