Injuries Leave Mazzoleni Without Options When Filling Out Lineup Card

With forwards Kenny Turano (broken ankle) and Andrew Lederman (shoulder) and defensemen David McCulloch (high ankle sprain) and Dylan Reese (pinched nerve) already out of the lineup, Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni could ill afford another injury this weekend.

But Friday night, the training room got a little more crowded with 9:13 left in the first period when senior defenseman Blair Barlow was hit hard against the boards by Cornell winger Greg Hornby.

Barlow, whom Mazzoleni said last week has been playing the best defense of his collegiate career, missed Saturday’s game with a possible concussion, leaving Harvard with only 17 healthy skaters with varsity experience, excluding goalies. Sophomore defenseman James Cleary dressed in Barlow’s place as a sixth defenseman but did not receive ice time.

Prior to Barlow’s injury, the Crimson had played the identical lineup—including the goaltender—for five straight games.

“I can’t sit kids and put other kids in the lineup,” Mazzoleni said flatly. “I made one change [Saturday] with the goaltending and that seemed to work, but we don’t have many trump cards.

“You have to have kids who are very self-motivated and disciplined. They know they’re going to have to get it done. If they’re not ready to play, we have no one else to play.”

Harvard’s third and fourth lines took on a new look this weekend and met with success. Freshman Kevin Du now centers junior Rob Flynn and freshman Ryan Maki on a line that features Du’s deft puck skills and the brawn of Flynn (6’2, 220 pounds) and Maki (6’2, 195).

“I think it went pretty well for us, just getting together this weekend,” said Flynn, who scored his second goal of the year Saturday. “Du and Maki are both hard-workers, Du with his skill and Maki with the size he has to create space. They keep things moving.”

Sophomore Dan Murphy, who has improved considerably over the last month, joins sophomore center Charlie Johnson and freshman right wing Steve Mandes on a speedy fourth line.

“If you’re going to have any chance to win in college hockey, you’d better have three lines, or four lines,” Mazzoleni said. “The fatigue factor sets in tremendously on back-to-back nights and you’ve got to have gas in your tank.”

Penalty Killed

The Crimson continued to struggle down a man on Friday night against Cornell, surrendering two goals despite drawing just three penalties.

Harvard’s first shorthanded situation went promisingly, as the two minutes ticked off the clock without incident. But Shane Hynes got the best of the Crimson on each of the next two, opening up a three-goal lead for the Big Red from which Harvard would never be able to recover.

Hynes capitalized on the Crimson’s inability to clear the front of the net for his first tally, tipping home a Matt Moulson shot from just outside the goal mouth.

Harvard maintained solid possessions on its own two power-play opportunities, but was unable to punch the puck home.

“I thought we had some good movement on it,” Mazzoleni said. “I mean, you look at them, they had three and they scored two goals on it. That’s kind of where we’re at. That’s why we’re like a .795 penalty kill and 12 [now 13.5] percent on our power play. We’re not getting it done.”

Against Colgate on Saturday, the Crimson drew only two penalties and couldn’t convert on either power play.

But Harvard thrived against the Raiders’ power play, killing five penalties with ease compared to the labors of the previous night. The Crimson excelled at accomplishing what it did equally well at even strength: pushing Colgate out away from the goal and forcing long, inaccurate shots.

The Raiders hit the net just twice with the man advantage.

Mazzoleni didn’t appear to be bothered by the penalties his team took, either.

“Danny Murphy calls a different game than [Friday’s official] Timmy Kotyra,” Mazzoleni said. “Timmy let a lot go last night and Danny calls a tight game.”

Conference Call

At this point, preseason pundits thought Harvard would be fighting for a spot in the NCAA tournament. Instead, the Crimson’s 8-9-2 overall record has all but ended its chances at an at-large NCAA bid, and the team has only an outside chance at a first-round bye in the ECAC playoffs, awarded to the league’s top four teams.

Harvard enters the exam break in a tie for third place in the ECAC at 6-7-1 (13 points). However, it has played 14 conference games this season—the most in the league—and several schools (front-runners Cornell and Dartmouth included) have only played eight.

In other words, winning percentage is a better indication of where the Crimson truly stands. By that measure, Harvard is eighth at .464. If it continues on that pace, it will likely finish with around 20 or 21 points and a record on the order of 9-11-2.

In most ECAC seasons, that is good enough for about seventh place, meaning the Crimson would miss a first-round bye and need to win two best-of-three series—one of them on the road—to make the ECAC Final Four.

The Crimson’s best-case scenario would be to end the conference season with eight straight wins to finish 14-7-1. That would give Harvard 29 points and possibly a first-round bye.

If Harvard fares very well in its last eight games, but is less than perfect—5-2-1, for example—then it finishes with 24 points, which would likely mean fifth or sixth place.

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

—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.