The Power Players

During the 2011-12 season, the Harvard men’s hockey team’s power play was often marked by perfect precision.

With senior forward Alex Killorn and junior forwards Marshall Everson and Alex Fallstrom up front, rookie defenseman Patrick McNally behind them, and junior blueliner Danny Biega playing the point, the Crimson finished first in the nation with a 27.3 percent success rate.

The squad tallied a man-up goal in 23 of 28 regular season games and recorded a streak of 18 straight contests with a power-play score dating back to the 2010-11 season.

“The group last year was successful because of great teamwork,” Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91 says. “They shared the puck, they worked hard, and really there was no one person that we completely relied on.”

Indeed, each player on the unit had a role to fill. Everson’s job was to screen the goaltender’s vision inside, McNally’s was to prevent short-handed opponents from breaking loose, Killorn’s and Fallstrom’s was to attack the net, and Biega’s was to orchestrate everything from up top.

“We were able to adapt to a lot of different situations,” Everson says. “There were games when we’d score off the rush; there were games when we’d score off set plays. I think you just have to take whatever the penalty kill is giving you.”

But doing so will likely be tougher in the upcoming season, as Killorn has graduated and moved on to professional hockey. The production of the first-team All-American, who led the Crimson with 23 goals and 46 points last year, will be difficult to duplicate.

“I don’t think you can replace a guy like Alex Killorn,” Fallstrom says. “He was a phenomenal player.... We’re going to do all we can to fill the gap, but it’s not easy.”

To make up for the star’s departure, Everson says a number of players must become larger offensive threats.

“The way you replace someone like that is you need multiple guys to step up to account for the production that we lost,” the senior says. “There’s five or six guys that...[are] going to have to be impact players every night.”

“It would be a very difficult task for any one person to try to step into [Alex’s shoes],” Donato echoes. “But I do feel that we as a team can score more by committee. I think there’s more guys that are capable of having really big years for us. We have more depth up front, so we don’t have to be heavily relying on one line to score a goal.”

Among returning players, Everson and Fallstrom paced the squad with 13 tallies last year.

“[They both] had excellent, breakout-type seasons,” Donato says. “We’re going to need them to continue [building] on that and take it a step forward.”

Biega, one of the top offensive defenseman in the nation, scored 10 goals to go with his team-high 25 assists, while classmate Luke Greiner had nine tallies. McNally scored six—four on power plays—to go with 13 assists in man-up situations.

That type of returning depth—combined with an incoming freshman class ranked as the ECAC’s best by College Hockey News—has led both Biega and Everson to declare that this year’s offense is the strongest in their four years at Harvard.

And though it will be tough to duplicate last season’s power-play success without its leading scorer, the squad believes an increased emphasis on sharing the puck will allow it to do well in man-up situations once again.

“Success on the power play doesn’t just come from one guy,” says Fallstrom, who registered five power-play goals last season. “We were able to establish great chemistry last year, and just being able to work off each other and be creative—I think that’s what the key is.”

“I don’t think our mentality changes this season,” adds Everson, who scored 62 percent of his goals and had 16 points on power plays a year ago. “All five guys know what they’re supposed to be doing, and they’re smart enough players to be able to adapt to the situation and find whatever hole [the defense is] giving us.”

Despite the success the group was able to generate on the power play last season, Donato still says there is ample room to improve.

“Last year our percentage was good, and we did a lot of good things on the power play, but I feel we also had some opportunities to win hockey games on the power play that we didn’t take advantage of,” the coach says. “That’s the next big step for us—to...be able to come up with a big power-play goal when the game’s on the line.”

To help take that next step, the team’s two top returning scorers both emphasized the need to stay on the attack.

“Our line was successful when we controlled the puck for long periods of time,” Everson says. “I spent a lot of time this summer working on puck control and body positioning along the boards so in games we can hold the puck for as long as possible.”

Those types of potential improvements have the team confident that in 2012-13, the Crimson can be just as successful in man-up situations as it was a season ago.

“Last year we had a brilliant power play,” Biega says. “[It was] unbelievable. But I don’t see why we can’t accomplish the same thing we did last year.”

—Staff writer Scott A. Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu.