SENIOR SPOTLIGHT: Andrew Lederman

The follow-through from Andrew Lederman’s power-play blast turned the forward towards the stands of the Bright Hockey Center, where all he could see was the blur of hats and jackets and faces of fans packed into the red bleachers. He didn’t see his puck sail past Yale goaltender Josh Gartner, nor did he see it buried in the left side of the net. All he saw was the sudden movement of hordes of fans jumping to their feet, and all he heard was the roar of their shouts.

It was just the second shot of the senior’s collegiate career to sneak past a netminder, but it had tied the Bulldogs contest with less than six minutes remaining and saved the Crimson from its third straight loss in the first four games of the young season. Until that goal, all indications had pointed to just another step down the path that had earned Harvard its early 0-2-1 record.

But then Lederman struck—and then so did two of his teammates—and all of a sudden, with a 3-1 victory over Yale, the Crimson had its first win of the season.

“We pulled through,” Lederman said, “and I think that was the first weekend we got a little momentum...that sort of led us through on a nice streak.”

That “nice streak” saw Harvard win eight of its next nine games, and it also saw Lederman tally eight points in that span—not what anybody anticipated from the forward who had scored just one goal as a freshman and nothing since. Not what anybody anticipated from the forward who played 14 games as a sophomore and seven as a junior. Not even what Lederman anticipated from himself.

“To be honest,” he says, now that his collegiate career has ended, “I didn’t expect too much. I talked to [Crimson coach Ted Donato ’91], and he said that...he could only give me so much leeway. I hadn’t necessarily proven myself in the two years before that, [and] I would get some opportunity, but I’d have to capitalize.”

The coach admitted as much early in the season. But after talking to Lederman’s teammates, Donato said he found it “obvious [that Lederman had] skills that were not being utilized.”

Donato had taken over the head job last summer after the departure of Mark Mazzoleni, under whom Lederman had played his first three years, “and for whatever reason,” Donato said, “things weren’t coming together so far in his college career.”

Lederman didn’t dress the first two games of the season, but after the second—a 2-0 dismantling by Cornell which Lederman watched from the press box—Donato was ready to shuffle his lines.

The next afternoon in Colgate’s Starr Rink, Andrew Lederman started as the second line’s right winger. But that wasn’t all. Instead, Donato had gone all out.

“He had put me on the power play,” Lederman laughs. “On the point.”

He smiles at the recollection, even though that contest ended as a 4-1 Harvard defeat, because after that loss to the Raiders came the now-infamous Yale game, the contest that sparked an entire team’s season and one player’s career.

That goal Lederman didn’t see? It was followed by five more—three with the man advantage and two game-winners. His 14 assists gave him 20 points on the season, a sum nearly doubling his previous three-year total of 11.

But while Lederman notched 11 of those points in the first seven weeks he played, he admits that his Midas touch was “subdued a bit towards the end.” The senior’s final nine points were stretched across the last two and a half months of the season, and down the playoff stretch, Lederman found himself watching from the stands once again.

For five of the Crimson’s last seven games, Donato benched the winger, explaining only that “I think we have guys that work hard every day in practice, and I want there to be some accountability when guys aren’t playing their best. Certainly, [Lederman’s] had a very good season for us...but we have to play with some responsibility and some accountability.”

But when the curtains fell on the Crimson’s season, Lederman’s story still earned him the Donald Angier Hockey Trophy for improvement, and it still made the decision to hang up his skates a little easier.

Turning down offers from Italian and Swiss teams, Lederman has opted for a job at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, with hopes of medical school in the near future. Because now, Lederman isn’t left with any nagging “what ifs.”

“I think that there were some great stories this year,” Donato said, “but I’m not sure there’s one that’s any better, or that’s made me feel so good.”

—Staff writer Rebecca A. Seesel can be reached at seesel@fas.harvard.edu.