Princeton, Yale Invade Bright Ice

Standing atop the ECAC standings, the Harvard men’s hockey team will put its three-game winning streak on the line this weekend in a pair of home games against Princeton and Yale.

Harvard (8-5-3, 7-2-2 ECAC) faces Princeton (5-12-0, 4-6-0) tonight at 7 p.m. and Yale (4-9-2, 4-4-2) tomorrow night at 7 p.m. The Elis are currently in second place in the ECAC, six points behind the Crimson, and pose the real challenge of the weekend as Princeton is not expected to give Harvard any trouble.

“We can’t look past Princeton because if we do, they might surprise us,” sophomore defenseman Dave McCulloch said.

The Tigers are ranked near the bottom of the ECAC in special teams, with the worst power play unit in the league and a penalty kill squad fending off less than 80 percent of power plays. The Tigers’ offense and defense are also ranked in the bottom quarter of the league.

“Princeton is a team that’s been know to work hard,” sophomore forward Brett Nowak said. “But I’m pretty sure that if we show up we’ll win.”

With that said, the Crimson outmatch Princeton at nearly every position, but will have to contend with a dangerous Yale squad.

To stop the Elis, Harvard’s defense will have to contain Yale’s talented forwards Ryan Steeves and Christopher Higgins. Steeves and Higgins are tied for second place in the ECAC with six goals apiece, and represent the majority of the New Haven offense. Despite that, Harvard will not approach this game any differently from a defensive standpoint.

“We don’t change how we play against different guys,” McCulloch said. “Our strategy is the same against everyone. We take away their space and play physical.”

Even with the offensive firepower afforded by Steeves and Higgins, Yale will have a difficult time in its own zone matching up against Harvard’s big three.

The Crimson have the three leading scorers in the ECAC in the form of sophomore forward Tyler Kolarik and junior forwards Dominic Moore and Nowak.

Nowak is tied for the ECAC lead in both goals with seven and in assists with nine. Nowak shares his ECAC assist lead with Kolarik who likewise has nine assists to go along with his three goals. Moore is second in the ECAC in scoring with five goals and eight assists.

The players attribute their improvement on offense to the coaching staff in assembling cohesive and effective line combinations.

“We’re figuring out a bit more how to score goals this year,” Nowak said. “Things have been clicking. It’s really a matter of having the right people on each line.”

Yale will attempt to counter the Crimson’s prolific offense with a solid team defense that has limited opponents to an average of just 2.2 goals a game thus far. That defense is the second-best in the ECAC, and will seriously test the Crimson’s balanced offense.

Another challenge for the Crimson will be containing the Elis’ special teams, which is one of the most balanced in the league. Yale ranks second in penalty killing with an 88.1 percentage and is fourth in power play conversion, at just under 20 percent.

The Crimson is currently ranked second in the league in penalty minutes, a weakness Yale is sure to attempt to exploit. Staying out of penalty trouble is the key to a successful Harvard hockey weekend.

“Not getting stupid penalties has really been a focus of our team this year,” Nowak said. “Hopefully we’ll be disciplined and stay out of the box.”

After this weekend’s games, Harvard’s next regular season games do not come until February 1-2 when the Crimson travel to upstate New York for a tough road trip against Cornell and Colgate.