Beanpot Victory All In A Night's Work

Ho-hum. Another Beanpot battle against Boston University, another 4-2 win. Yawn.

Let's not say that Harvard men's hockey Coach Ronn Tomassoni is bored silly with doubling up on those Terriers, but two day after Monday's important out-of-conference victory, Tomassoni radiated the confidence of a man sensing that greater destinies lie ahead for his Crimson.

"It was a big win, and hopefully we've turned [the Beanpot] around in making it 'our tournament' instead of BU's all the time," Tomassoni said. The Terriers had made the finals in each of the past ten years, but now the Crimson are working on its own string of three straight, and Tomassoni's conviction in his team's strength seems well-founded.

"But we went in there expecting to win, too, so it's not as though it's a surprise to us," he continued. "We know we're a good hockey team, and when we come focused and prepared to play we can beat any team in the country. It's a good win, but there are a lot of games ahead of ourselves, starting this weekend."

So it's Colgate and Cornell this weekend, and after BC comes a long stretch run--in which Harvard must remain more attentive than it did last year in fading before the finish line.

Rotation Set: Tomassoni has sketched his goaltending plans through Monday's Beanpot Final against Boston College. Though it's not absolutely set in stone, look for Aaron Israel between the pipes Friday against Colgate and again against the Eagle on Monday, with Tripp Tracy getting the call in between with a start against Cornell on Saturday.

"Tripp won the Beanpot for us last year, but Aaron did get us there," Tomassoni said. "This year maybe Tripp can reverse it, getting us there for Aaron to win it. But we've got to get past this weekend first."

Back From the Injured: An old face made a surprise visit to Bright Arena yesterday: Brad Konik, looking almost fully recovered from a careerthreatening knee injury, was taking shots and helping run the power play at practice for Tomassoni.

Konik had six assists in seven games as a sophomore forward on last year's team before a bone bruise on the back of the kneecap sidelined him for the remainder of the year and into this year.

He's been living this year in Minnesota, working mornings and doing rehabilitative work on the knee in the afternoon, and he's to the point where he can play in a men's league three nights a week at close to full strength.

"Skating-wise, once I get going, I can almost get to full speed," Konik said. "But if I stop and quickly try to accelerate, there's still a little bit of pain there. Right now, we're trying to work towards that last five percent of improvement, which is always the hardest."

As a medical redshirt, Konik will be back next year as a junior with two years of eligibility left, and he says he knows that he made "the right decision" in passing the year up, even thought it's been tough for him to watch his teammates play.

But he certainly hasn't let his long, black locks stop growing in his absence--he would win a Crimson hair count on this year's team hands down.

Back From the Injured, II: Speaking of last year's Crimson, Ted Drury has recovered from his own kneecap injury--a fracture, suffered while playing earlier this year for the Calgary Flames--and almost got the game-winner in Team USA's last tune-up before the Winter Olympics.

Sweden, one of the gold-medal contenders in Lillehammer, had to settle for a 2-2 against the United States on its home turf, in Goteborg, Sweden. Drury appeared to have given the U.S. the victory, but his long slapshot was ruled to have gone in after the buzzer.

Drury and Team USA start Olympic competition this Sunday against France, featuring once-and-future Crimson defenseman Michel Breistroff. Breistroff should be back next year with Konik after taking this year off to represent his country.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.