Former Assistant Faces Own Hockey Recruits

SCHENECTADY, N.Y.—Nate Leaman either coached or recruited everyone on the current Harvard roster during his four-year stay as an assistant coach. Friday night, he watched those players from the other bench for the first time.

Leaman, who left Harvard during the offseason to become head coach at Union, nearly got the better of his old team before his Dutchmen allowed three goals in a frenzied third period and fell at home, 3-2.

“There were a lot of emotions in the game,” said Leaman, who keeps in touch with Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni and some Crimson players.

Despite Harvard’s mediocre record this season, Leaman was quick to praise his former team—not surprising, considering it peppered Union goalie Kris Mayotte with 50 shots. Leaman called Harvard the “best faceoff team” and “quickest team” the Dutchmen had played all year

“I saw the same guys out there, making plays,” Leaman said. “In some ways, that didn’t surprise me…They’re probably the strongest team in the league.

“They were better on faceoffs than I remembered. They were never that good when I was there.”

Leaman was a major component of Harvard’s back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances. Last year, he ran both special teams, worked with forwards and coordinated recruiting.

This season, those responsibilities have been divided between assistants Sean McCann ’94 and Gene Reilly. McCann coordinates the power play and works with defensemen. Reilly is the primary recruiter and took over Leaman’s duties with forwards and the penalty kill.

Reilly’s penalty kill focuses on cutting down passing lanes, consistent with tactics he learned while coaching professional hockey the last two seasons. Last year, the Harvard penalty kill was the ECAC’s fourth-best (155-for-185, 83.8 percent). So far this season, it is 70-for-88 (79.5 percent), and No. 8 in the league.

Meanwhile, McCann began the season using the same power-play alignment Leaman used last year, with one man at the point, one on top of each circle and one in each corner. But after a 7-for-41 (17.1 percent) performance in the season’s first 10 games, McCann switched to a formation with two point men and three players down low, including one right in front of the goaltender.

Harvard has gone 3-for-29 (10.3 percent) on the power play since, including 0-for-7 against Union and 1-for-4 in Saturday’s loss at Rensselaer.

Against the Crimson’s first unit, Leaman said the Dutchmen tried to stay in the shooting lanes of point men Noah Welch and Tim Pettit—a tactic teams have used successfully all year.

Still, Leaman thought Harvard’s power play generated some chances—as evidenced by its 14 shots on goal.

“I think they did a good job of finding seams,” he said, “even some backdoor seams.”

Still, Harvard’s power play is tied for second-worst in the league (14.3 percent). Last season, the Crimson power play was a league-leading 37-for-156 (23.7 percent). The year before that, with then-assistant coach Ron Rolston running it, Harvard had the league’s third-best power play (28-for-136, 20.6 percent).

The Ties that Bind

Perhaps even more important than coordinating special teams, McCann and Reilly have worked to establish strong relationships with the Harvard players, something their popular predecessors did in spades.

“We miss them, certainly,” said assistant captain Tyler Kolarik of Leaman and Rolston. “It has been an adjustment for us, and it’s been an adjustment for Coach Reilly and Coach McCann.

“We have to keep working on our relationships with them. They’re great guys and great coaches. We’re blessed to have them.”

Reilly and Leaman worked together at the University of Maine before Leaman came to Harvard before the 1999-2000 season.

“Coach Leaman learned a lot from Coach Reilly, so there are a lot of similarities between the two, and that’s made the adjustment a little easier,” captain Kenny Smith said. “Coach Reilly brings a lot of things to the team that we haven’t seen before, so the team takes a new shape, too.”

Aside from hockey duties, one of an assistant coach’s biggest roles is to act as a buffer between the head coach and players on the variety of off-ice issues that arise during the long season.

That involves trust, which comes with familiarity—something McCann developed in his first year and into this season.

“We’re at the point now where we can talk to Coach McCann,” Smith said. “He played here, too, so he knows what we’re feeling and thinking.”

Reilly has had an especially short amount of time to get to know the players, since he was named an assistant late in the summer and has been on the road recruiting for long stretches of the season. With the spots of nine graduating seniors to fill, Reilly has missed several Harvard games while pounding the pavement across the U.S. and Canada.

“With Coach Reilly, it’s a feeling-out process, but the guys are starting to feel more comfortable with him, too,” Smith said. “In his interactions with us in the locker room and on the ice, we’re starting to build a good relationship.”

Harvard hurting

The first half of Harvard’s season was plagued with injuries—and the second half is starting much the same way.

The most recent subject for trainer Dick Emerson has been junior forward Andrew Lederman, who injured his shoulder Christmas night. He should return after exams.

Meanwhile, defensemen David McCulloch (high ankle sprain) and Dylan Reese (pinched nerve) did not travel with the team to the weekend’s games and are out indefinitely. Senior wing Kenny Turano is due to get the cast off his broken foot later in the month and will begin rehabilitation after that.

Excluding goalies, that leaves the Crimson with 18 healthy skaters who have varsity experience. The team’s two healthy scratches for the weekend were forward/defenseman Brendan Byrne and defenseman James Cleary.

Robbie recognized

Harvard senior forward Rob Fried is one of 14 recently-announced nominees for the Humanitarian Award, presented annually to college hockey’s finest citizen.

Fried was nominated by the University to receive the honor, and is a good candidate to be one of the finalists to be named on Thursday. Fried applied for and received a grant to run a hockey clinic in Quincy for underprivileged youth of Greater Boston last summer.

The award will be presented Friday, April 9 at Faneuil Hall during the Frozen Four, hosted this year at the FleetCenter.

“He deserves it, after how much work he put into that clinic,” said Kolarik, a close friend of Fried’s since their days at Deerfield Academy. “It couldn’t happen to a better kid. Everything Robbie does is special.”

Two for the price of one

The hit of the weekend came courtesy of Welch. With two minutes left in the first period on Saturday night, Welch closed in on Rensselaer winger Kevin Broad in front of the Engineers’ bench.

With a four-inch, 17-pound size advantage, Welch drove his shoulder into Broad—and lifted him over the dasher and into his own bench.

On his descent, Broad knocked over the team’s backup goalie, junior Andrew Martin. Broad looked dazed as he stood up, but later returned to the game.

Get ‘em while they’re hot

Harvard students who have not otherwise secured tickets to Friday’s sure sellout at home against Cornell can obtain standing room tickets beginning this morning at the Murr Center ticket office.

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