On Hockey: Harvard Set To Make Playoff Run

I need to start off with a small confession: I’m back to enjoying hockey games.

For a while there, specifically since spending almost six hours of my life slogging through New York and New Jersey traffic to watch Harvard sleepwalk through a 2-1 loss (and a season sweep!) at Princeton, my mood on entering an arena varied from ambivalence to resignation.

Watching Harvard hockey had gone from being the highlight of my weekend to being an often frustrating diversion from school work.

Not anymore.

Despite a dearth of fans (Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni joked at the postgame press conference on Friday night that there were more reporters gathered around him than were people actually lining the benches of Bright Hockey Center) the hockey this weekend was exciting, both teams’ physical play was rousing and the small crowd that was present was emotionally invested in the on-ice outcome.

In short, it was not your typical 2003-2004 Harvard hockey game. It was, in the words of junior netminder Dov Grumet-Morris, a “good playoff atmosphere,” the type of arena ambiance often found only when Cornell or BU (and their sizable fan followings) come to Bright.

What follows then, in no particular order, is a list of three reasons why I’m back to enjoying hockey games. And, not coincidentally at all, it doubles as the list of reasons why I’ve already booked a hotel room in Albany (site of the ECAC championships) on the firm belief that the Crimson can defeat the Bears next weekend at Meehan Auditorium.

CONSISTENCY IN NET

Grumet-Morris is playing well, not the best hockey of his career, but certainly close to it.

He has cut down on juicy rebounds, often directing the puck via his pads to a defenseman waiting to clear the zone.

And he has turned in consistently strong performances in net, eliminating some of the inconsistency that plagued him (and many other aspects of Harvard’s play) this season.

Although Grumet-Morris’ scoreless streak—measured at 184:23 and extending through consecutive shutouts of Dartmouth and Vermont (the first back-to-back blankings in 17 years for a man in a carmine sweater)—ended early in the third period on Saturday night, Dov has consistently kept Harvard in a position to win its last three games.

That ability to keep Harvard close in all its remaining games is essential, especially against Brown and all-world goaltender Yann Danis.

Danis has struggled of late, with the Bears losing four of their last five games; nevertheless, he is second in the nation in save percentage and fourth in goals-against average.

Danis still has the ability to shutdown teams practically at will, and the Crimson will need Grumet-Morris to equal Danis’s strength in net if it hopes to advance to Albany.

FOCUSED PENALTY KILL

What was, at many points during the year, Harvard’s biggest weakness has been transformed into a strength. The team’s penalty kill, which struggled mightily this season despite the fact that Harvard took the fewest penalties in the ECAC, has shut down other teams’ power play units with increasing efficiency over the season’s final weeks.

Despite allowing two goals in less than a minute and a half Saturday night,

Harvard has killed off all but two of the last 21 power plays it has faced. And those two power-play goals allowed on Saturday hardly came during typical circumstances.

“That was a little weird...it was a 6-on-3—I think I’ve only seen that one other time in my career,” Crimson captain Kenny Smith said. “We battled hard; I know they got two goals there, but those were some difficult circumstances to be in, and we played really well through that.”

Harvard will need to play as well, or better, against Brown.

The reason that the Bears spent much of the season atop the ECAC was their ability to put points on the board to support Danis.

In particular they have sported an efficient power-play unit, the best in the ECAC, which converts at a 23.2-percent clip.

Stopping that unit will be one of the keys for the Crimson.

COMBINATIONS

Harvard’s line combinations—whether up front or back along the blue-line—are more efficient, more balanced and more focused than they have been all season.

It’s a hard contention to quantify (though Alex McPhillips and Tim McGinn both touch on those subjects; see related articles) but I trust my own eyes, and they tell me that the Crimson has finally found combinations that work well together, generate scoring chances, play physically and avoid costly penalties. Smith happens to agree.

“We’re not making the mental errors that we made early in the year, [those] plagued us during the first half of the season,” he said.

Minus costly penalties (which I still have concerns about, especially against Brown) Harvard’s lines have been filling their roles admirably.

The fourth line (Turano-Flynn-Fried) skates and checks hard.

The third line (Kolarik-Du-Mandes) has incredible forechecking skills and three terrific puck-handlers.

The second (Pettit-Cavanagh-Johnson) is composed of playmakers with hard shots, and the Crimson’s best line (Packard-Bernakevitch-Maki) not only directly accounted for two scores this weekend but also managed the difficult task of shutting down UVM’s top line of Jeff Miles, Brady Leisenring and Chris Smart.

“[Harvard] played outstanding,” Vermont coach Kevin Sneddon said. “Hats off to them. They are a very strong, physical team. They played very well defensively, and really played well in all aspects of the game.

“Certainly, the better team this weekend won, and I think they are going to be a tough team to play in the next round,” he continued.

Agreed, and that’s why I already have that room booked for Albany.

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