The NCAA Banner Rests Here

As Captain C.J. Young is quick to point out, this season's edition of the Harvard hockey team will have to do what "no Harvard team has ever had to do before"--repeat a national championship.

It is the season after. Olympians Lane MacDonald and Allen Bourbeau are gone. The front is rebuilding, the back searching for depth. In Bright Center, the Crimson will be playing under the shadow of an NCAA Championship banner.

"It's another season. We're yesterday's news," Harvard Coach Bill Cleary says. "We only have a few more days to bask in our glory."

When the Crimson faces off against Yale in New Haven tonight, it will no longer be simply "NCAA champion." Add a "defending" to that title.

"As much as people always like to beat Harvard," Young says, "this year they're going to be trying a little harder."

As the Crimson found out last year, some of the stiffest competition will be right here in the ECAC. In the 1988-89 season, Harvard went 31-3-0--all three losses were to league opponents. And once again, the Crimson has been picked to finish ahead of the ECAC pack.

A big reason for that decision is Harvard's offensive firepower. Although the Crimson lost two of the best forwards in the nation in MacDonald and Bourbeau, it still has the strongest returning offense in the ECAC.

In fact, neither MacDonald or Bourbeau was the Crimson's top scorer last season. That man was Peter Ciavaglia. Ciavaglia tallied 63 points, netted a hat trick against Lake Superior State in the NCAA quarterfinals and lead the team in scoring for most of the season.

And he still hasn't made it onto Harvard's first line. Then again, Cleary doesn't arrange his lines by numbers, but by the color of practice jerseys instead--"I have four lines, all equal," he says.

Ciavaglia is the undisputed star of the line that wears blue jerseys and skates the second shift. Flanked by ex-roommate John Weisbrod and current roomie Mike Vukonich, Ciavaglia sees himself protected by a pair of "twin towers."

"I certainly have enough size and strength around me," Ciavaglia says. "With John and Vuk using their muscle in the corners, they should get the puck out to me a lot. If it works out that way, I won't be complaining."

Captain C.J. Young and junior Ted Donato line up next to rookie center Ted Drury for Harvard's starting trio. Young is the man of 47-second fame: he tallied three shorthanded goals in that span for a national record when the Crimson tromped Dartmouth, 10-0, last December. Donato played well enough in St. Paul to upstage soon-to-be-named Hobey Baker winner MacDonald and walk away with three goals and NCAA MVP honors.

When Drury first arrived at Harvard last September, his claim to fame was being selected in the second round of the NHL draft--a pick as high as any in Harvard history, and higher than third-round selection MacDonald. Since then, Ted has become known as the big brother of Chris Drury, ace pitcher for the Trumbull, Conn., team that captured the Little League World Series.

"Ted's a hard-working kid. He's not going to let himself get complacent," Young says. "We just have to get a sense of how we're going to play, find out where everyone is going to be. Chemistry on the line is very important."

Senior Tod Hartje has kept the green practice jersey that became the trademark of last year's crowd-favorite fourth-liners. Paul Howley and Ed Presz have graduated, but Hartje is carrying on the tradition--even if he is playing third-shift center this season. Hartje will skate with senior John Murphy, a fourth-year starter, and sophomore Timmy Burke, who saw limited action last season. The final line will boast the other two rookies to make this year's squad--Matt Mallgrave and Steve Flomenhoft--as well as JV call-up Craig Miskovich.

"We're bigger this year, but we're not going to change our game plan," Cleary says. "We're still in there to skate and score."

Defense

At the start of last season, defense was a question. This year, all six of the defenders have seen some varsity action, but the Crimson doesn't have much depth. Gone are Josh Caplan and Nick Carone, two of last year's mainstays. Sophomores Kevin Sneddon and Brian McCormack never seemed to go through a rookie stage and should only be stronger with a year's experience. Sneddon is skating with classmate Richie DeFreitas, who filled in sporadically last winter, and McCormack pairs with senior Brian Popiel.

McCormack's big brother, Scott--who is actually a bit smaller than his 6-ft., 1-in., 195-1b. "little" brother--is hoping his senior season will be injury-free. Scott has suffered fom collarbone and wrist injuries the past two years and has yet to play in an NCAA playoff game.

1989-'90 Schedule Date  Opponent  Time Nov. 10  at Yale  7:30 Nov. 11  at Brown  7:30 Nov. 17  ARMY  7:30 Nov. 18  PRINCETON  7:30 Nov. 25  at RPI  7:30 Nov. 27  at Dartmouth  7:30 Dec. 1  at Colgate  7:30 Dec. 3  at Cornell  2:00 Dec. 8  at Vermont  7:30 Dec. 16  DARTMOUTH  7:30 Dec. 22  at Minnesota  7:30 Dec. 23  at Minnesota  7:30 Jan. 5  CLARKSON  7:30 Jan. 6  ST. LAWRENCE  7:30 Jan. 12  YALE  7:30 Jan. 13  BROWN  7:30 Feb. 2  at Princeton  7:30 Feb. 3  at Army  7:30 Feb. 5  Northeastern*  TBA Feb. 9  CORNELL  7:30 Feb. 10  COLGATE  7:30 Feb. 12  Beanpot*  TBA Feb. 16  VERMONT  7:30 Feb. 17  RPI  7:30 Feb. 23  at St. Lawrence  7:30 Feb. 24  at Clarkson  7:30 * - at Boston Garden

A blessing from the hockey gods (a.k.a. theNCAA commission) has given back Scott's favoriteblueline buddy and the Crimson's biggest defensivethreat--All-ECAC defender Kevan Melrose--for thefirst half of the season. Melrose, whose fiveyears of collegiate eligibility ended last spring,was granted an extension and will play untilJanuary 13.

"Right now, with the experience we have,defense is really going to finish off a lot ofthings for us," Young said. "But overall teamdefense is the key. We have to work to put thingstogether as a team."

One area Harvard won't worry about for quite awhile is goal. The Crimson has not one, but two ofthe nation's top goaltenders in sophomores AllainRoy (.912 save percentage, 2.52 goals-againstaverage) and Chuckie Hughes (.906, 2.79). Roy wasthe netminder named to the NCAA tourney teamwithout even playing in the finals. Hughes, thesmallest player on last year's team, provedhimself to be the hardest to miss with his on-andoff-ice antics. Hughes followed up aheart-stopping performance in the Beanpotsemifinals by holding court in the Boston Gardenlocker room--then gave another unforgettableperformance on the 11 o'clock news.

The competition between Roy and Hughes isfierce, but its more for bragging rights than thestarting spot. Cleary followed a strict two-manrotation last season and has so far seen no reasonto change his tactics.

"As they always say," according to Cleary, "'Ifit ain't broke, don't fix it.'"

That theory applies to Cleary's five-forwardpower-play set as well. Donato and Vukonich willplay at point, with Ciavaglia, Weisbrod and Youngup front. Last year, Harvard converted 26 percentof all its power plays and was even better onpenalty kills (15 percent).

"It's hard to tell [how this year's Crimsonwill perform] until I see them against someoneelse," Cleary says. "I think the guys are gettinga little tired of looking at each other."

They'll get to look at the Elis in New Haventonight--and they'll be looking at the inside of abus for much of the next few months. This season'sschedule puts Harvard on the road for eight of its11 games before winter break. The pay-off? TheCrimson will be home throughout January readingperiod