Men's Hockey Returns Home To Face St. Lawrence, Clarkson

Fresh off two heartbreaking losses, the No. 7/8 Harvard men’s hockey team will take the ice against No 18/- St. Lawrence and Clarkson in the familiar confines of the Bright-Landry Hockey Center starting on Friday. Beat writer Kurt Bullard has three things to watch for in the Crimson’s weekend slate.

OUT OF THE SPOTLIGHT

The Crimson (8-3-3, 4-2-3 ECAC) has played its last four games under the microscope of a wide audience. Harvard’s two wins in Minneapolis at the 25th Annual Mariucci Classic resulted in the team bringing home hardware to Cambridge. Its next two contests came against high-profile programs—crosstown rival No. 10/10 Boston University and No. 2/1 Quinnipiac, with Harvard taking on the latter in the Big Apple. Both games resulted in nail-biting losses for the Crimson, and they involved a stretch of play between games where Harvard conceded seven goals in just under 17 minutes.

Harvard’s slate this weekend, however, is rather vanilla when it comes to conference play. St. Lawrence (10-8-2, 4-3-1) sits fifth in the ECAC, two points behind the Crimson having played one less game. Yet the Saints enter the weekend having dropped three games in a row, including one to cellar-dwellar Clarkson (9-9-2, 1-5-2), whom Harvard will cap off the weekend against on Saturday. Neither visitor boasts a star scorer, with no players on either side ranking in the top 12 in goals or points scored this season. This weekend offers an alternative to the high-pressure games that the Crimson has played over the past two weeks.

QUESTIONS BETWEEN THE PIPES

In the Crimson’s last two contests, two different goalies have given up at least five goals apiece. First came sophomore Merrick Madsen, who surrendered six goals on 30 shots in a 6-5 loss to BU. Freshman netminder Michael Lackey followed that up by conceding four goals on the first 12 shots he faced against Quinnipiac, a start that shadowed his 21-shot save streak that allowed the team to come back and force overtime.

It remains to be seen who will skate out to the crease to start Friday against the aptly-named Saints, but a defensive performance similar to the one shown during last weekend’s slate of games might hand the team its third loss in as many contests. Madsen is the most likely candidate to get the nod—even though the Flyers prospect has given up 11 goals in the last three games he’s played, he started off the season hot. The sophomore surrendered only seven goals in his first seven games and is a large part of why the team concedes 2.16 goals per game on average.

A SUSTAINABLE OFFENSIVE PACE?

Harvard finds twine at the sixth highest rate in the nation and the highest in the conference, averaging 3.93 goals per game. Four players on the team—including senior Colin Blackwell and junior Alexander Kerfoot—average at least a point per game, with freshman Ryan Donato two points shy of that mark. Co-captains Jimmy Vesey and Kyle Criscuolo round out the point-a-game crowd, having logged a combined 39 points through 14 games.

The offense so far has been able to cover up a struggling defense still searching for an identity following the departures of defensemen Patrick McNally and Max Everson. But this type of production will unlikely be able to mask the Crimson’s defensive woes if the squad wishes to venture deep into the ECAC and NCAA tournaments.