Home Ice at Stake In Season’s Final ECAC Weekend at Bright

Heading into the last regular-season weekend, the Harvard men’s hockey team can either build momentum for a possible run through the ECAC playoffs or falter down the stretch and possibly lose its current first round home ice advantage.

The Crimson (11-13-3, 9-9-2 ECAC) could finish anywhere from fifth, meaning home ice and a weak first-round opponent in the ECAC playoffs, to ninth, which would send Harvard on the road for the opening round. So it’s not just momentum that’s riding on the weekend’s outcome.

“We’ve been playing very well over the last three or four weeks,” said Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni. “[But] you don’t want to go into the first round of the playoffs without having gained momentum.”

The first step in gaining momentum—or continuing it, since the team is coming off a strong three-point North Country weekend—would be a victory tonight over Vermont. The Catamounts (8-19-4, 6-13-1) have been the ECAC’s cellar-dweller for much of the season, thanks in large part to a 13-game winless streak to begin the season, but in recent weeks have hit their stride. Vermont comes to Bright Hockey Center with a four-game win streak and will be eager to avenge its 6-4 loss to Harvard in Burlington earlier in the season.

“Over the last few weeks, Vermont’s been playing very, very good hockey,” Mazzoleni said. “They’re in every game and they’re winning a lot of games.

“They have a very good skating team.”

The key to Vermont’s skating game lies in the speed and puck-handling skill of forwards Jeff Miles and Brady Leisenring, both of whom have totaled 33 points this season. Containing Leisenring and the speedy Miles was something Harvard failed to do in Burlington; Miles, the former Catamount captain, had a goal and two assists in his team’s loss, and Leisenring added a goal and the assist on the Miles’s goal.

The pair has been especially hot of late. Miles has accounted for three goals and five assists during his team’s four-game winning streak, while Leisenring has four goals and two assists over the same stretch.

“Both Vermont and Dartmouth have very good team speed and skill,” junior goaltender Dov Grumet-Morris said. “They have traditionally done very well in league play and can take two points on any given night.”

Not to be outdone by Vermont, Dartmouth (11-7-9, 9-4-7) boasts outstanding skill along its front line. Hulking forward Hugh Jessiman and swift-skating Lee Stempniak have anchored the Big Green offense for the past two seasons, combining for 63 points thus far this season.

“Dartmouth returns upfront, probably the best forwards in the league,” Mazzoleni said.

And their skill on offense can create problems for Harvard’s defense. “Skilled forwards [like Jessiman and Stempniak] oftentimes are more than just a scoring threat, they also draw penalties with their speed and play very well in their defensive zone,” Grumet-Morris said. “They pose a real all-around threat for opposing teams.”

And given its motivation—the Big Green is fighting for a first-round bye during this weekend’s games—Harvard’s task won’t be easy.

History, however, is on the Crimson’s side. Harvard has won six straight against Vermont and is unbeaten in its last seven against Dartmouth.

And while the ECAC horse race is attracting most everyone’s thoughts, the Crimson will pause after Saturday night’s game to honor its nine-member Class of 2004 with a Senior Night program. This marks the first senior class at Harvard to be both recruited and coached by Mazzoleni for a full four years.

It is a class that arrived on the heels of an 11-17-2 season and has since played a key role in back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances. And although the Crimson has struggled this season, the team’s seniors sound convinced that their careers won’t end anytime soon.

“We just have to look forward to what we have coming up and try to make a good run at this thing, because I definitely think we can,” said senior Blair Barlow. “We can’t look at this as being our last game ever, because we want to continue a ways into the postseason.”

—Staff writer Timothy M. McDonald can be reached at tmcdonal@fas.harvard.edu.