Harvard Seeks First Victory of New Year

Forty-one days.

Three ECAC face-offs.

Seven games.

When the whistle blows tonight, the Harvard men’s hockey team will not have posted a win since its December 1 shutout of Dartmouth. The Crimson (6-7-3, 5-4-2 ECAC) hopes to break its winless streak in this weekend’s series against St. Lawrence (7-9-3, 2-4-2) and Clarkson (11-6-1, 6-2-0) at the Bright Hockey Center.

“The weekend speaks for itself,” sophomore Alex Biega said. “Its huge, a must-win situation for us. [It’s a] weekend where we hope to turn the season around and try become the team we want to become.”

But it won’t be easy.

The Golden Knights have won their last five games against Harvard. Most notably, Clarkson knocked the Crimson out of the ECAC playoffs in the second round last spring, ending Harvard’s season and its hopes for a title.

“When you face a team like that, you have to get back at them,” Biega said.

But the last time they met, the Crimson failed to get its revenge, falling short, 2-1, in its season opener against the Golden Knights. After Clarkson established an early lead in the first period, Harvard was unable to get a shot past goaltender David Leggio, a problem that could resurface in Saturday’s contest, as Leggio has remained dominant throughout the season and currently holds the 11th-highest winning percentage in the nation at .676. Clarkson’s strength in the crease, coupled with the Crimson’s struggling offense, could be a recipe for disaster.

And now that the Golden Knights and Harvard are in a three-way tie for first in the ECAC, along with Princeton, even more is at stake, as the Crimson tries to recover its early-season momentum.

“We have to go with the mindset that we have the chance of beating the number one team in the ECAC,” Biega said. “It’s a great team, but we have to do all the little things—and the little things well—to find success.”

But before Harvard takes on the Golden Knights, tonight it will face another ECAC powerhouse—the Saints. When the Crimson confronted St. Lawrence earlier this season, it skated to an overwhelming 6-1 victory.

Despite the landslide win, the Saints still proved to be a challenge for Harvard.

“That was a good game, but...even that game was closer than the score indicates,” co-captain Dave MacDonald said.

Unwilling to accept defeat, St. Lawrence’s offense pummeled the Crimson net with shots, and sophomore goalie Kyle Richter made a career-high of 42 saves that night, breaking his previous record by one. Although Harvard overpowered the Saints then, the Crimson is wary of entering tonight’s match with too much confidence.

“Any team can beat anybody on a given night,” Biega said. “We have to come in mentally prepared. As long as everybody individually does that, I think we’re going to find team success.”

Although Harvard faces a lot of pressure to win this weekend’s series, especially after its seven-game dry spell, the Crimson is trying to focus on one game at a time.

“What’s happened behind us has to be out of our minds,” MacDonald said. “We’re just looking forward at this point.”

—Staff writer Courtney D. Skinner can be reached at cskinner@fas.harvard.edu.