Athlete of the Week: Blackwell's Return From Injury Sparks Men's Ice Hockey

To casual fans of No. 18/- Harvard men’s hockey team, it looked simple at the surface. Sophomore Luke Esposito flung a shot at Brown’s goaltender Tim Ernst. It ricocheted into the slot, where fourth-year forward Colin Blackwell collected the puck and whipped it past the outstretched glove of Ernst to give the Crimson a 2-0 lead—one that it would not surrender the rest of the game on Friday night.

But below the surface, it was more than just a goal. It was the culmination of a two-year journey.

Blackwell notched two goals on Friday and the game-winner on Saturday to help Harvard (17-11-3, 11-8-3 ECAC) sweep Brown (8-20-3, 5-14-3) in the first round of the ECAC Tournament to keep the Crimson's NCAA Tournament berth hopes alive.

“[Those were] huge games for us,” Blackwell said. “Last night, we didn’t want to make a three-game series. We had an opportunity to close the door and we proved that we could do that against a good team.”

The team had come into the series against the Bears in an offensive rut, having only put up more than two goals twice in its final five games of the regular season. When elimination was looming on the horizon, the team found an offensive spark from the most unlikely of sources.

The output wasn’t unlikely in terms of the player’s skill set. Instead, the surprise was the fact that he suited up to play in the first place.

After solid freshman and sophomore campaigns where he averaged 16.5 points per season, the North Andover, Mass. native was sidelined for his junior year due to upper body injuries. He played one game this year—a matchup against Bentley—before heading to the bench again with injuries. He finally returned to action during the final weekend of the season. But the Crimson eased the senior back into action, placing him on the fourth line for Friday night’s game. Blackwell skated well, but both No. 11/12 Quinnipiac and Princeton did not allow him to get a shot off.

“Even out there [that weekend] from the get-go, he was making plays and moving his feet,” co-captain Max Everson said. “You could tell right away that he was one of the better thinkers out there on the ice.”

The same cannot be said about his performance in his two games against the Bears.

The San Jose Sharks prospect was moved to the second line for the weekend and played a critical role on in both games on the weekend for Harvard. After his first goal gave the Crimson a two-goal advantage in the series opener, he connected again—this time on a drop-pass from Esposito rather than a shot rebound—to beat Ernst for the second time on the night and give Harvard an insurmountable four-goal lead in the third period.

“It’s been a long time so I was just happy to be out there and be contributing to the team,” Blackwell said. “I was fired up for us to get the sweep.”

The next night was more of the same from Blackwell. The senior ripped a wrister past Ernst to give the Crimson what was at the time a three-goal lead in the second period. But the goal turned out to give Harvard just enough cushion, as Brown would go on to make a late charge, notching two more goals over the course of the next two stanzas but ultimately fell short of finding the equalizer to send the game into overtime.

His impact was apparent beyond the box score as well. His speed was too much to handle for the Bears, as Blackwell drew crucial penalty calls for the Crimson, including one that led to his first goal since Jan. 2013.

“He’s a terrific hockey player,” junior forward Jimmy Vesey said. “I think that having him back in the lineup just adds another element of speed and skill and solidifies our depth as a whole.”

—Staff writer Kurt T. Bullard can be reached at kurt.bullard@thecrimson.com.