Men's Hockey Seeks Return to Early Season Form

Tyler Moy is on the move.

The sophomore forward has been up and down the Harvard men’s ice hockey team’s lineup this year. He began the season as the team’s third-line center before moving up to the first line to skate in between juniors Jimmy Vesey and Kyle Criscuolo.

Meanwhile, he climbed into the ECAC Hockey’s elite. After a 10-point rookie campaign, the San Diego native has already doubled that total this year to sit tied for 14th on the conference leaderboard.

Now, with the full return of classmate forwards Alex Kerfoot, Sean Malone, and Luke Esposito from injury last week, Moy expects to wing Malone and Esposito on the second line when Harvard (13-8-3, 9-6-3 ECAC) travels to New York’s North Country to face No. 20/- St. Lawrence (16-11-3, 12-5-1) and Clarkson (11-15-4, 8-8-2) this weekend.

So far, Moy has taken all of the changes in stride. His new line scored twice in Harvard’s 4-1 win over Colgate last Friday, and he reunited with Vesey to put a third past the Raiders with one-tenth of a second left in the middle frame.

“You kind of have to just take it as it comes and have a good attitude about it and give the coach a good reason to play you,” Moy said Tuesday. “I just want to contribute to the team as a whole, wherever that may be.”

With two weekends left in the ECAC regular season, Moy is not the only Crimson player making adjustments. The ebb and flow of the team’s injury issues have forced Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91 to reshuffle combinations nearly across the board.

Appleton Arena, St. Lawrence University By Michael D. Ledecky

But on a deeper level, Harvard is trying to recapture its buzz from earlier in the season. A seven-game winning streak rocketed the Crimson to No. 3 in the national polls, but a sub-par start to 2015 has placed the squad on the bubble for making the national tournament.

The losses exposed mistakes with which the Crimson got away earlier in the year. Since January, Moy says, the team has taken a step back and looked inward. On the ice, Donato and associate head coach Paul Pearl have re-emphasized fundamentals. Off the ice, the team has consulted a sports psychologist and has talked about “playing with pride.”

“When you’re challenged with losing and struggles like that, you kind of have to remember what your identity is as a team,” Moy said. “That’s something that we’ve talked about within the past weeks—about who we are as a team and what we want to be.”

With a conference postseason bye and NCAA Tournament bid on the line, this weekend will be a challenging test for a Harvard team that is just starting to get its confidence back.

The Crimson will start work on Friday at St. Lawrence, the only team to chase junior goaltender Steve Michalek out of the net this season. The Saints, which enter this weekend four points ahead of the Crimson for second place in the ECAC, scored three first-period goals on Jan. 17 before Donato pulled Michalek in a 5-1 loss at the Bright-Landry Hockey Center. Michalek is more than ready to put the experience behind him.

“They came out of the gate hard, and I didn’t have it that night,” Michalek said Wednesday. “I didn’t play the way I wanted to play, but that’s in the past. For a goalie especially, it doesn’t matter who you play. You just stop whatever shots you get.”

He will be playing across from Kyle Hayton, who stopped 46 pucks that night to bolster his claim as the conference’s unquestioned rookie of the year. Under the freshman’s stewardship, the Saints won seven straight games over January and February before losing, 2-1, at conference-leading No. 11/10 Quinnipiac last weekend.

Michalek and Moy have fonder memories of their last time out against the Golden Knights, who are three points behind the Crimson in the conference standings. On the strength of an offensive outburst from its top line, Harvard beat Clarkson, 6-3, the night before Hayton’s heroics.

Moy remembers something different about his team that night.

“I think we played with a confidence [against Clarkson],” Moy said. “I think when our team is doing best, we kind of have a swagger about ourselves, and I think that’s the way we need to keep going from this point on.”

With injured players and returners, Harvard will finish the regular season looking like a different team than the one that started it. The next nine days will determine whether that difference is a positive one.

"I think we got a little bit of momentum this past weekend,” Michalek said. “We got back on the same page and got back to how we want to play. We’re just trying to build on that.”

—Staff writer Michael D. Ledecky can be reached at michael.ledecky@thecrimson.com