Miracle Run Brings M. Hockey ECAC Title

Sometimes you’re the hammer. Sometimes you’re the nail. The Harvard men’s hockey team proved this season that it doesn’t take very long to change from one to the other.

Over a two-week period in March, the Crimson (15-15-4, 10-9-3 ECAC) bounced back from a disappointing 2-8-1 finish to the regular season by earning a spot in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1994.

Harvard’s late-season surge culminated with a 4-3 defeat of Cornell in the ECAC Championship Game at Lake Placid, N.Y. The double-overtime thriller lasted 96:11, making it the longest game in Harvard hockey history.

The Big Red came into the Final Five as the strong favorite, but a hard-working Crimson team took Cornell out of its game plan and fought back from 2-1 and 3-2 deficits to force overtime for the third game in a row.

By then, the pressure of playoff overtimes was old hat for Harvard freshman goaltender Dov Grumet-Morris. He rose to the challenge, making key saves and giving his teammates enough time to come through with the game-winner.

Sophomore Tyler Kolarik played the hero, beating Ken Dryden Award-winner Matt Underhill from the left faceoff circle with 2:49 to play in the second overtime, giving his team its first league title since 1994.

“I thought I caught Underhill by surprise,” said Kolarik, who was playing with a broken thumb. “He was expecting me to drive wide, but I just threw the puck at net with all I had.”

Harvard showed determination and poise—very impressive considering the Crimson skated 13 freshmen and sophomores against Cornell.

“When you consider how young our team is, I never expected to be here today,” Harvard Coach Mark Mazzoleni said in the post-game press conference. “But we have come together and learned what it takes to win. It was no fluke.”

Of course, the Crimson never would have had the chance to win the ECAC title if it weren’t for its earlier overtime heroics.

Harvard was reeling in the semifinals after Clarkson tied the game at two on Kevin O’Flaherty’s goal with 5:29 to play in regulation. The Golden Knights dominated play in overtime, as well, holding a 14-4 edge in shots on goal.

But Grumet-Morris made sure none of Clarkson’s bids found the back of the net, keeping the Golden Knights at bay long enough for his classmate, winger Tom Cavanagh, to score the game-winner and set up Harvard’s date with destiny.

The Crimson’s first-round matchup with Brown the week before was just as dramatic. After coasting to a 4-1 victory in Game One of the best-of-three series, Harvard found itself in a dogfight the very next night, having to battle back from a third-period deficit to force overtime.

The Crimson controlled the run of play more and more as the game went on, peppering All-American goaltender Yann Danis with 14, 16 and 19 shots during the second, third and first overtime periods, respectively.

But Danis was simply dazzling. He turned aside everything the Crimson threw at him, setting the record for saves by a Harvard opponent with 66.

Harvard junior Dominic Moore made sure he didn’t make number 67, twice following up his own rebound before finally backhanding it past Danis. The elaborate scoring play ended what was then the longest game in Harvard history at 14:41 of the second overtime.

Though the Crimson’s fourth trip to overtime during the postseason—in the first round of the NCAA tournament against Maine—ended in a 4-3 defeat, Harvard was able to carry loads of optimism away from its playoff run.

“With what we return from this club and what we have coming in, there’s no reason why Harvard shouldn’t return on a consistent basis to the national level,” Mazzoleni said. “I believe we will. There’s character in that locker room. They’re bright guys. Now we have to place them in a very competitive environment and demand an awful lot. The future is very bright.”

Indeed, there will be no shortage of preseason expectations heaped upon next year’s team. But that fact alone won’t frazzle the Crimson, who learned how to avoid the pitfalls of excess hype this year.

Last October, Harvard was ranked as high as No. 8 in preseason polls and was picked to win the ECAC by conference coaches. But Mazzoleni and the players were more cautious, saying that the team’s realization of its potential would be a gradual process.

The Crimson players proved themselves correct, as they struggled out of the gate with a season-opening loss to Brown, considered then to be the worst team in the ECAC.

Harvard didn’t find its rhythm until its fifth game. Fittingly, the victim was Cornell. Despite playing without one of its best players—junior forward Dominic Moore—the Crimson pulled off the 4-3 overtime upset over the previously undefeated Big Red.

That win sparked Harvard’s best stretch of the regular season. After nonconference setbacks to Boston University and Boston College the following week, Harvard rolled to a 6-2-1 stretch, winning five of seven ECAC games to plant itself firmly in first place.

That stretch also included Harvard’s most impressive point of the regular season. The Crimson traveled to Michigan on Dec. 15 and came home with a 3-3 tie, playing the heavily favored Wolverines evenly throughout most of the game. The Wolverines would eventually make the Frozen Four.

“I was really proud of the way our kids played,” Mazzoleni said. “[Yost Arena] is a tough building, but we showed a lot of resiliency, stayed up and started to play our game.”

As its freshman and sophomore classes matured in those first months of the season, Harvard developed a balanced offense. Five players scored between 25 and 30 points.

That—combined with the team’s improving if unspectacular defense, led by the steadying influence of senior captain Pete Capouch—proved that the Crimson could beat any team in the ECAC and compete with nonconference powers as well.

Harvard entered the exam break on a roll and atop the ECAC standings, in prime position for its first regular season title since 1994. But by the end of the regular season, the Crimson was fighting just to stay in the top half of the league.

The seemingly annual post-exam slide began with a lopsided 5-3 loss at Cornell that was not nearly as close as the score indicated. Five losses and one last-place Beanpot finish later, the Crimson had lost any shot at the regular season crown.

The coaching staff desperately searched for a way out of the slump, juggling the team’s offensive lineup and imploring the players to work more as a team.

“Our team has to do things the coaches want you to do, not doing things that you want to do,” Mazzoleni said. “When you have five guys on the ice [and] four of them read it one way and one guy is going off on his own page, you’re in trouble.”

Part of the problem could be attributed to goaltending. Mazzoleni had rotated Crothers and Grumet-Morris all year, and, through January, each had played well. Yet both struggled in February, causing Mazzoleni to rethink his policy.

Grumet-Morris finally distinguished himself in a 1-0 win over Union. With the victory, the freshman earned not just his first career shutout, but also the permanent starting job.

Grumet-Morris cemented his spot the following weekend—the last of the regular season—as the entire Crimson team finally showed signs of life.

“That weekend was the point when our team came together and really understood how hard they hard to work and how they had to play together as a team,” Mazzoleni said.

Harvard lost both games of the weekend. But that only made the Crimson’s ensuing playoff run that much more improbable and—not inconsequently—magical, too.

MEN'S HOCKEY

RECORD 15-15-4 (10-9-3 ECAC)

COACH Mark Mazzoleni

CAPTAIN Peter Capouch

HIGHLIGHTS Harvard upsets Cornell at home and ties Michigan during regular season. After a 2-8-1 swoon, the Crimson rattles off four straight victories—three in overtime—to claim its first ECAC title since 1994. Harvard’s season ends in overtime, too, to Maine, 4-3, in NCAAs.