M. Hockey Decided By Special Teams

Aside from a disappointing performance by Harvard, Saturday night’s season opener against Brown was what one would expect from a matchup of the ECAC’s top returning goaltenders: the team with the better special teams performance won. The Bears took four penalties (to Harvard’s seven) and scored one power play goal (to Harvard’s zero), emerging with a 2-0 win.

More important than the number of penalties, though, was Brown’s timing. Twice in the second period, Harvard put itself on the wrong end of a five-on-three. The result? The second Bears goal, and only three Harvard shots on net in the period.

“You shoot yourself in the foot when you go in the box, and you shoot both feet off when you go two men down,” Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni said. “We dodged one bullet, but we didn’t dodge the second one.”

The Crimson penalty kill, coordinated by new assistant coach Gene Reilly, was adequate, limiting Brown to 10 shots in 8:41, but the extended special teams workload left several of the Harvard’s key players without enough left in their tanks to mount a third-period comeback.

“[Brown] plays their game very, very well, and if you get down to a team like that, it’s a difficult to come back because they play so well defensively,” Mazzoleni said.

A big reason the Bears held the lead was their disciplined play. After they went up 2-0 on Cory Caouette’s five-on-three goal with about two minutes left in the second, they took only one penalty: an elbowing call on Vince Macri early in the third period.

On that power play, Harvard had one shot on goal. For the game, the Crimson had three shots on goal in a full six minutes on the man advantage.

“We got outworked, collectively, as a five-man unit by their four-man unit—consistently,” Crimson assistant captain Tyler Kolarik said. “There were definitely some lost opportunities.”

Saturday’s game marked the first time—including exhibitions—that the first power play group of Kolarik, junior Tom Cavanagh, senior Tim Pettit, sophomore Charlie Johnson and junior point man Noah Welch skated together in game conditions.

Harvard’s first power play of the day, late in the first period, was characterized by uncertain passing and produced no shots on net. It began with Johnson losing control as he tried to work into the slot, and ended with senior defenseman Dave McCulloch fanning at the point. In between, Pettit fired over the cage when he had an open look and Cavanagh had his bid from the right circle blocked.

“I just think it comes down to a matter of execution,” Kolarik said. “I don’t think it fit together tonight, and that’s not to say it won’t fit together another night. I think this power play is going to be a great power play. It’s just a matter of getting the kinks out, and having more effort.”

Saturday in Suits

Junior Andrew Lederman, sophomore James Cleary and freshmen Ryan Maki and Steve Mandes were scratched from the lineup. Junior defenseman Ryan Lannon also missed the game because of the one-game suspension that went along with a butt-ending/game disqualification call against Boston University in last year’s NCAA tournament. As arguably the team’s top defensive defenseman, he will almost certainly return to the lineup this weekend, meaning one of Saturday’s blue-liners will be the odd man out.

Melrose Place

McCulloch was whistled for cross-checking at 4:47 of the second period, helping to set up Brown’s first (unsuccessful) five-on-three power play. The penalty minutes were the 217th and 218th of his Harvard career, leaving him 83 minutes—or, seven more minutes than he had last season—shy of breaking the school record for career penalty minutes, set by lovable ruffian Kevan Melrose ’90. Assistant coach Sean McCann ’94 (259 minutes) is the second-most penalized member of Harvard’s sin bin club.

Between the Pipes

The win was Danis’ first at Bright Hockey Center, as he improved to 2-3 lifetime against the Crimson with two shutouts, a 1.26 goals-against average and .966 save percentage.

Meanwhile, Harvard junior goaltender Dov Grumet-Morris had a solid but unspectacular 22-save performance to start to the season.

“I don’t know if he was overly tested early,” Mazzoleni said. “I think he saw most of the pucks. I think they had the upper hand in shots, and puck possession, but it wasn’t like there was a barrage on him.”

Mazzoleni still plans to start sophomore goalie John Daigneau once during this weekend’s road trip to Vermont and Dartmouth, though he said after Saturday’s game that he hadn’t decided which game it would be.

Hooked on Phonics

A public service announcement to the fans seated in Section 11: The name Danis is pronounced as one would expect a French name to be: DAN-ee. You, the sometime-costumed, ever-inebriated, face-painted fandom, chose to call him DANE-is. On the other hand, this may have been done on purpose, due to the enhanced rhyming possibilities inherent in your version.

More on Moore

Dominic Moore ’03 fared much better Saturday night than his former Harvard teammates. He recorded three assists in his NHL debut with the New York Rangers, helping the Blueshirts to a 5-1 win in Montreal.

“Mr. Sather said to me before the game, ‘There’s one rule: Have fun,’” Moore told the Associated Press, referring to coach and general manager Glen Sather. “He’s absolutely right and that’s what I tried to do, and just stayed relaxed and tried to have fun out there and take it all in.”

Not a bad philosophy, considering it resulted in Moore tying George Allen’s 1938 record for most points in a Ranger debut, according to a story in Sunday’s New York Times, referencing the Elias Sports Bureau.

Moore centered Jamie Lundmark and Dan LaCouture on the team’s fourth line, and also saw time on the power play, the Times report said.

Sunday night’s Colordo-New York game at Madison Square Garden was historic for a different reason. It marked the first time that Moore and his brother, Steve (’01)—another former Crimson captain—played against one another.

When he was assigned to the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack at the beginning of the season, Dominic Moore expected that match-up would come Jan. 2, in a game between the Wolf Pack and his brother’s Hershey Bears.

Much to their delight, though, early-season call-ups sped up the timetable. Saturday night was Steve Moore’s 17th career game, and his brother’s second.

According to the Associated Press, they were on the ice at the same time.

—Staff writer Jon Paul Morosi can be reached at morosi@fas.harvard.edu.