Crimson, Catamounts Open Playoffs Tonight

As the Harvard men’s hockey team prepares to face off against Vermont in the first round of the ECAC playoffs this weekend, one question lingers: Which Crimson team will skate into Bright Hockey Center tonight?

Will it be the same squad that beat the Catamounts, 6-4, early in the season, or will it be the squad that fell to the Catamounts, 6-4, one week ago? Will it be the team that has dropped only one of its last five contests, or will it be the team that prevailed in only one five before that?

One need only to look to Harvard’s performances last weekend to understand just how hot-and-cold the team has been. After falling at the hands of the Vermont (9-20-4, 7-14-1 ECAC) last Friday, the Crimson (12-14-3, 10-10-2) capped its regular season with a memorable 4-0 annihilation of Dartmouth.

The Harvard penalty kill went 3-6 against the Catamounts but was a stifling 8-8 against the Big Green. Similarly, though the Crimson suffered 11 penalties and 22 turnovers against Vermont, the squad’s play was much more shipshape against Dartmouth.

“We came out [on Saturday] and did everything right,” said captain Kenny Smith. “We played as hard as we could, [and] we weren’t making the little mistakes that we had earlier in the season.”

Harvard’s final regular season game showed why it was picked to finish atop the ECAC standings in the coaches’ preseason poll. The loss to Vermont aside, the Crimson seems to have gathered momentum.

For the first time in a long while, the team is healthy. Since returning two forwards and two blueliners who had been sidelined with lingering injuries, the Crimson is no longer pulling a forward back to strengthen a defensive corps stretched dangerously thin.

Moreover, sticks once idle have come to life. Smith, who went the first 11 games of the season without a point, has tallied four in the past five games—a stretch in which his team has gone 3-1-1. In fact, 20 Crimson skaters have tallied a point or more during that time, with six garnering three or more.

“We’re playing very, very good hockey right now,” said Harvard coach MarkMazzoleni.

Last Saturday’s performance was in part due to Mazzoleni’s tinkering with the lineup. He changed at least one aspect of three of his four offensive lines, and he switched the left skater on all three defensive lines.

Particularly potent was the newly-formed second line of sophomore Charlie Johnson, junior Tom Cavanagh and senior Tim Pettit. Johnson scored two goals, set up by Pettit (two assists) and Cavanagh (one assist).

“Charlie Johnson moves the puck very well, and he’s a very smart player, much like Tom Cavanagh and Tim Pettit,” Mazzoleni said. “They compliment each other well, and they did an outstanding job on Saturday.

“They think. They make plays. They get up and down the ice.”

Against Dartmouth, the entire squad made plays on both ends of the ice. But the question remains: Can the team sustain this level of play long enough to make a run at the ECAC title?

A similar situation arose two years ago after Harvard ended the regular season with an unimpressive 11-14-4 record. Then, the “Cardiac Crimson” shocked its way to an ECAC title, winning one of its four playoff games in an extra frame and two in double-overtime.

“We don’t try and draw on it too much,” Smith said of the miraculous run during his sophomore season. “This is a different team. We have our own experiences. But for the guys who weren’t here, I do like to reference it a little bit so they know [that it’s possible].”

Similarly, Mazzoleni refuses to place too much emphasis on Harvard’s quarterfinal series with Vermont last season.

The Crimson took the first game, 4-1, on Dennis Packard’s first collegiate hat trick, then earned a ticket to Albany with a 5-1 win in Game 2. Harvard’s power play—5-13 over the two games—was the difference.

To Mazzoleni, though, that history means very little.

“These are two totally different teams,” he said. “It’s just going to come down to which team has more opportunities to play its style of game.”

Catamounts coach Kevin Sneddon ’92 agreed.

“Both teams are considerably different,” he said. “Every year is a new year. There won’t be a lot of emphasis placed on what happened last year, more on what happened last week.”

Although Vermont left Bright triumphant last weekend, the team suffered a 6-0 loss to Brown in its next outing. Sneddon called it an “emotional and physical letdown.”

Still, the Catamounts have won five of their last six—a startling turnaround after an 0-11-2 start—and the Crimson knows it can’t take careless penalties. UVM is 6-13 on the power play against Harvard this season.

“We need to do a better job of controlling our emotions and staying out of the box, and we need to make better decisions with the puck,” Mazzoleni said. “We played right into [Vermont’s] trap and fueled their transition game.”

“I don’t think it’s going to get too chippy,” Smith said, “because neither team can afford [to get] penalties. But I think you’ll see a lot of heavy hitting. Any time a guy’s along the wall, he’s going to get popped.”

Two Crimson losses this weekend will mark the end of nine senior skaters’ careers. But this is not the time to be sentimental.

“When we get to the banquet, we’ll talk about how meaningful it was and how great the relationships were,” said senior winger Rob Fried. “But right now, we’ve just got to focus.”

When asked about ending his final season on his terms, Smith agreed with Fried.

“We just want to win,” he said.

BRIEFLY

The All-Ivy selections for men’s hockey were announced this week. The Crimson did not have a player named to the first team, but junior defenseman Noah Welch was a second team All-Ivy choice. Cavanagh and Pettit received honorable mention.