HOCKEY PREVIEW 2006-07: Family Ties

Luong Du fled Saigon, Vietnam, when he was 17, stopping in a Malaysian refugee camp before making it to Edmonton, Alberta in 1979. It was in Canada that Lu met his wife, Phuong.

Like Lu, Phuong was ethnically Chinese but an immigrant from Saigon. In fact, both had initially wished to wind up in Australia—for the weather, of course—and had picked Canada, with its relatively lenient policy for sponsoring families, as their second choice. The pair was married in 1984, the middle of a decade that belonged to the local Edmonton Oilers. The franchise won five Stanley Cups in seven years, and Lu was sold on hockey as soon as a coworker introduced him to the game. When sons Kevin and Jonathan were born, they never stood a chance.

“[My father] just fell in love with it,” says Kevin, now a senior center on the Harvard men’s hockey team. “He figured it would be a good way for me and my brother to get involved with the community, meet some new friends, new people.”

The Du boys took to the ice early, never dismayed by the fact that there was only one other Chinese family in town. After all, everyone looks alike behind a facemask.

“Getting involved in hockey early definitely helped,” says Kevin, the elder of the two boys, who was hooked on the game before the age of 10 and had plenty of coaches push “the college route,” which took him all the way to Harvard.

There are only two skaters shorter than Kevin, who is 5’9, on this year’s Crimson, and just three lighter than his 175 pounds. But in a game that often prizes physicality and brute strength, Du has made a living with his speed, slippery moves, and impressive durability in the face of looming opponents.

His offensive numbers have crept steadily upward—from 10 points as a rookie and 20 as a sophomore to 33 his junior campaign—and he was named to the All-New England and All-Ivy League teams for his efforts last season.

“If he continues the same rate of improvement he’s had over the last few years,” says Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91, “the sky’s the limit of what kind of season he could have for us this year.”

In December of 2005, the coach called his forward “a very talented guy, very much a part of our success whenever we win.” Take, for example, a game against Princeton that came two months later—Du scored three goals, each one to break a tie.

But there was a downside to the situation, Donato admitted: “because [Du] is counted on so much, when he has off games, the flip side of it is he’s a big part of the games we lose.”

All in all last season, Harvard was 7-1 in Du’s multi-point efforts and just 4-8-2 when he went without a goal or an assist. The center knows this but refuses to feel the pressure.

“Well,” he pauses, smiling, “I don’t think it’s pressure. It’s just what comes with being a senior now. I can probably speak for the rest of the guys: we’re going to be expected to do a lot of things this year, and I don’t think that really scares any of us. We’re ready for it.”

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