Johnson Tallies Two Over UMass

Harvard hockey coach Mark Mazzoleni sat in a side room in the bowels of Bright Hockey Center Saturday, examining the night’s success with a critical eye.

“That’s the way we’ve got to play,” he said. “We’ve got to play with a lot of jam, and if we don’t bring jam, we’re a .500 team at best. That’s the bottom line.”

On Saturday night, Charlie Johnson brought the jam.

Two goals were the difference in the Crimson’s 5-3 upset, and Johnson—a sophomore left winger from Calgary, Alberta—provided two scores early in the game.

The first, which put Harvard on the scoreboard at 7:53 in the first period, came off a mistake by UMass goalie Gabe Winer. As the puck skidded down the ice toward the UMass end of the rink, Winer skated out of the crease to play it. With Crimson center Brendan Bernakevitch applying the pressure, Winer tried to get rid of the puck.

Instead, Johnson intercepted Winer’s errant push and whipped a sharp-angle shot into the top left corner of the net for his fifth goal of the season.

“It happened to end up on my stick and I just tried to shoot it as quick as I could,” Johnson said.

The second Johnson goal came at 1:43 in the second period. As Harvard captain Kenny Smith got ready to slap a shot at the crowded UMass goal, he drew two rushing defenders, which cleared the net for Johnson down low.

“Smitty…just made a good, quick pass and I just tried to get a stick on it,” Johnson said.

Johnson deflected Smith’s shot into the far corner of the goal—on Winer’s stick-side—putting Harvard up 3-0 and frenzying the Bright Hockey Center crowd. It was the first multi-goal game of his Harvard career, but he did not want to stop there.

After goal number two, Johnson admitted that he started thinking about a hat trick.

“I was definitely smelling the third goal,” he said.

Even though Johnson fell short, and even though UMass eventually caught up, it was the early lead that got the Crimson going.

“Our confidence hasn’t wavered,” Johnson said. “But once we get off to a good start, it’s going to motivate us more…we kind of had a new mentality for tonight’s game as opposed to the last games, and it got us going to get those goals early. It got us energized.”

Johnson, whose two scores moved him into second on the team in goals with six behind only junior center Tom Cavanagh and his eight, has given glimpses of his outstanding potential of late.

In Harvard’s last game—Wednesday’s 3-2 loss to Boston College—Johnson scored a goal on the Crimson’s first shot of the game at 1:24 in the first period. It was the fastest Harvard had scored in a game since a Dec. 29, 1999 loss at Minnesota, when Dominic Moore ’03 scored at 0:19.

Mazzoleni was frank about the potential of his sophomore winger after Saturday’s win.

“Charlie Johnson’s got skill,” he said. “I mean, Charlie Johnson can score goals. He showed it.”

But the Harvard coach challenged the winger to keep his hot streak alive for the rest of the year, wondering aloud about the kind of player Johnson could eventually be.

“You know, Charlie Johnson’s got to play with jam,” Mazzoleni said. “When Charlie Johnson plays with jam, [Saturday’s game]’s what happens. When he doesn’t play, you don’t even know he’s on the rink. I’m just telling you how it is. It’s the truth. He can be the difference-maker for us, if he plays with jam.”

Freshman right winger Steve Mandes, whose goal at 12:01 in the third was the eventual game-winner, agreed with Mazzoleni, down to the last part about the jam.

“[Johnson] had a great game,” Mandes said. “He’s really getting in there...He just played with a lot of jam, and that’s what we need out of everyone, especially from a skill guy like Charlie.”

And if Johnson continues to bring both his skills and his jam to the rink on a nightly basis?

“If he can bring both to the table,” Mandes said with wonder, “it’s going to be awesome.”

—Staff writer Alex McPhillips can be reached at rmcphill@fas.harvard.edu.