Icemen Look to Roll at Bright

Harvard Coach Ronn Tomassoni, not commonly known for his silver tongue, spun up some words of wisdom after last weekend's men's hockey games.

"If a tie is like kissing your sister, we must have a lot of sisters," Tomassoni said.

For everyone's sake, let's hope that Dartmouth (2-18-2 overall, 2-14-2 ECAC) and Vermont (15-9-2, 9-7-2) don't have incest in mind this weekend.

Harvard rests atop the ECAC with an 11-1-6 (12-3-6 overall) record and has already clinched a berth in the conference playoffs, but the Crimson has had a tough time as of late with even the weakest of opponents.

The Crimson tied Cornell at home and barely scraped by Colgate Saturday night.

"We've had chances to recover this week," Tomassoni said. "We gave the kids an extra day off. We were real pleased with practice on Tuesday. They had that extra hop in their step and looked a little refreshed."

One thing, Harvard needs to improve on this weekend is its power play performance, which failed to tally all last weekend.

"Obviously we've got to get a little sharper. Basically we lost some integral parts of our power play [to injuries]," Tommasoni said. "We just never had a chance to recover. That's certainly something we've been concentrating on and something we hope we'll improve on this weekend."

Needless to say, two wins would give Harvard the momentum it needs heading into its final contests against St. Lawrence and Clarkson.

"It's a very important weekend," freshman forward Ben Coughlin said. "We've been in first place a couple of times, and haven't been able to hold onto it. We want to make sure we don't have any ties and are in good position going into next weekend."

Friday night's game against Dartmouth might be the medicine for the Crimson's ills.

It's been a long time since Dartmouth has boasted a respectable hockey team, and this year is no exception. Dartmouth is trapped in the ECAC cellar (three points above Union), and there's no ladder in sight.

The Big Green's goalies let in an average of over five goals a game. The power play (if you can call it that) connects on 13.4 percent of its chances. And Dartmouth's only wins this season have been against lowly Union and Rensellaer.

Get the picture.

Of course, as any coach will say, the worst thing the Crimson can do is look past this game.

Dartmouth has been known to play unusually well at times. By playing a tough physical game, the Big Green played third-place Yale to a 4-4 tie last week.

"I stressed to our guys not to overlook Dartmouth," Tomassoni said. "They tied Yale and have been playing real well lately. They have that youthful enthusiasm, that feeling that they can play well with anybody. We did not have an easy time with them up there."

Dartmouth's main threats are its young forwards. Sophomore Scott Fraser leads the team with 10 goals and seven assists (17 points), while assist-specialist, freshman Dion Del-Monte, is a skilled playmaker.

Harvard's best strategy is to do as it did last time: score early to prevent Dartmouth from building any confidence. That tactic helped the Crimson to a 6-3 victory over the Big Green in Hanover, N.H.

Streaking Catamounts

Vermont should pose a much stiffer challenge for the Crimson. The Catamounts have played phenomenal hockey in the past weeks and are currently on a 10-game unbeaten streak.

The catalyst has been freshman standout goalie Christan Soucy, a strong candidate for ECAC Rookie of the Year honors. Soucy, current ECAC Rookie of the Week, has recorded a 1.41 goals-against-average and .955 save percentage in the past 10 games.

Last week, the Catamounts rolled over Yale, 4-1, in Burlington, Vt., with Soucy providing the spark.

"What we really need to do against them is play a physical game and get a lot of shots," Coughlin said. "[Soucy] tends to give up a lot of rebounds. We've got to get a lot of hits and have guys who are willing to crash in and push others aside to get in front of the net."

Last time against Vermont, Harvard had trouble knocking in those rebounds, but a strong defensive effort gave the Crimson a 3-1 victory.

Harvard's defense, which has held firm throughout the season, will have its hands full, however, with Vermont's wiley Jim Larkin and Captain Mike McLaughlin.