Men's Hockey Tops ECAC Coaches' Poll; Blackwell To Return

For the first time in 12 years, the Harvard men’s ice hockey team will open a season as the coaches’ choice to top the conference.

With nine of 12 first-place votes, the Crimson led the ECAC Hockey coaches’ preseason poll and placed third in the media poll, according to conference press releases Tuesday.

Whitney Avenue rivals Yale and Quinnipiac placed 1-2 in the media poll with 10 first-place votes each to Harvard’s nine. Crimson co-captain Jimmy Vesey led the preseason first team after topping the nation in goals in 2014-2015.

Harvard last topped the coaches’ poll before the 2003-2004 season, when the program won its seventh of nine conference tournament titles.

Crimson coach Ted Donato ’91, fresh off his first career preseason endorsement from his peers, addressed reporters via teleconference Tuesday morning.

“There’s a certain level of excitement from within the group, with a good amount of returners from last year’s team,” Donato said. “I think there’s a lot of optimism. I think we should be a pretty dangerous team up front.”

Harvard returns players responsible for 106 of the 121 goals the team scored in 2014-2015. Among those goal-scorers will be fifth-year senior Colin Blackwell. Under Harvard guidelines, the North Andover, Mass., forward will be eligible to play for at least one semester.

“It looks good for Colin,” Donato said. “We’re excited to have him back…. He certainly was a shot in the arm for us when he was healthy at the end of the season, and it is exciting moving forward to have a healthy Colin Blackwell around.”

According to Blackwell, he is still waiting to learn whether he will have a second full semester of eligibility. If he does not receive eligibility for the full year, he suggested he would choose to play in the spring semester, when the final stretch of the regular season and any potential playoff contests would take place.

“I’m excited to be back for another year; [it’s] just a question as to when that year would start,” Blackwell wrote in a message on Tuesday.

While Harvard will bring established offensive firepower into opening night, the Crimson will have to answer for inexperience in goal and on defense.

In the coming weeks, Donato will assess the team’s ambiguous goaltending situation, which involves three first-string candidates—freshman Michael Lackey, sophomore Merrick Madsen, and senior Peter Traber—with a combined one NCAA start over the last two seasons.

“I think it’s certainly an area of concern,” Donato said. “Anytime you’re talking...about the game of hockey, you’re talking about the goaltending being an enormous part of the equation, but I’m also an optimist in the sense that we have the type of talent that can give us great goaltending. I think there’ll be some great competition.”

Moving up the rink, Harvard loses two leaders on defense in Pat McNally ’15 and Max Everson ’15-16, who have signed professional contracts in recent months.

“Those are two important players for us to try to replace,” Donato said. “It remains to be seen. We certainly have some experience returning in guys like Desmond Bergin and Brayden Jaw and Wiley Sherman and Clay Anderson, but I do think we’re going to have to really improve and develop as the year goes on on the back line if we want to have a lot of success at the end of the season.”

Up front, Harvard’s first line of Vesey, co-captain Kyle Criscuolo, and junior Alex Kerfoot will return along with eight of the nine other Harvard forwards who skated during the ECAC Hockey final last March. Added to the offensive mix will be Boston Bruins second-round draft pick Ryan Donato—Coach Donato’s eldest son.

“I think for a long time I didn’t really consider much the idea of coaching him as much as I was excited about him getting a chance to start his education at Harvard,” the elder Donato said. “It will be an interesting chance. He certainly has some offensive tools that will fit in nicely to our group, but like most freshmen, he still has a lot to learn. So it should be interesting; it should make for some quality dinner discussions I’m sure.”

—Staff writer Michael D. Ledecky can be reached at michael.ledecky@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @mdledecky.