Pivotal Intrastate Contest Against UMass Looms

The Harvard men’s hockey team (5-5-1, 4-4-1 ECAC) holds a commanding 5-1-0 all-time record over Saturday’s opponent, the No. 8 University of Massachusetts Minutemen (9-3-2, 5-2-1 Hockey East). Unfortunately, four of the Crimson’s victories were secured before 1922, and the last meeting between the two teams came during the 1999-2000 season. This means that on Saturday night, when the two teams face off at Bright Hockey Center, there will not be one Harvard player with experience against the Minutemen, and vice versa.

“Both teams…have changed significantly over the last few years,” said UMass coach Don Cahoon. “Obviously, it will be a different type of game than was played a few years ago.”

The last time the teams met, Harvard’s roster still listed Dominic Moore ’03 and Brett Nowak ’03, two forwards whose presences on the ice have been sorely missed this year. Moreover, Massachusetts had not yet gained current senior blueliner Thomas Pöck, who with nine goals and 10 assists ranks near the top of the nation in both points and goals per game—the only D-I defenseman in the Top-25 of either category .

Even more importantly, Pöck is tied for third in the nation in power play goals, having amassed six thus far in the season. This is particularly impressive considering Massachusetts has managed only 13 power play goals the entire season, giving the team a meager 18.3 percent power play conversion.

“We’ve done a good job killing penalties,” said Cahoon, “but we’ve been inconsistent with our power play…. We’ve spent a lot of time in practice in the last couple of weeks trying to negotiate better plays and better decisions.”

Harvard has not fared any better with the man advantage this season. The team enters Saturday night’s contest at 18.2 percent.

In Thursday night’s loss to Boston College, however, the Crimson showed marked improvement, going 1-3 with its revamped power play unit. The new look is a 2-3 setup, with junior defenseman Noah Welch and senior forward Tim Pettit across the top and three skaters behind.

“I’m really excited about our power play,” Welch said. “Obviously, if you score, it’s a momentum builder; but sometimes, if you’re just peppering the goal and getting chances, that, too, lifts your team up.”

Despite the initial progress in one of its weakest areas, though, the Crimson knows that it is in for a battle on Saturday night.

“They’re No. 8 in the country,” Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni said. “They’re pretty good.”

For example, as a team UMass has scored 35 more points than the Crimson this season.

Harvard hopes to stymie the high-scoring Minutemen with its most potent weapon to date: junior netminder Dov Grumet-Morris. Ranked fourth in the nation with a 1.67 goals against average and fifth with a .941 save percentage, Grumet-Morris has only increased his level of play as the season has progressed.

In the past three games, Grumet-Morris has made 84 saves; however, due to a lack of offensive support for the goalie, two of those efforts translated into one-goal losses.

The Crimson is hoping to finally recover that explosive offense which scored almost four goals per game last season; however, as Cahoon said, the team has changed.

Having graduated both Moore and Nowak, Harvard is struggling this season to regain its offensive prowess. On Wednesday night against BC, the Crimson took only 18 shots on goal.

In addition, the Crimson has suffered several key injuries, including ones to senior forward Kenny Turano, senior defenseman Dave McCulloch, freshman forward Steve Mandes and freshman defenseman Dylan Reese.

Mandes did play on Wednesday night, and earlier in the week Reese (see related story below) said he hoped to return for the weekend’s matchup.

Despite the losses, the Crimson remains hopeful, and it is careful not to put too much weight on Massachusetts’s ranking or its star player.

“[Getting] worried about who we’re playing, and this and that, and who’s on the other team—that only gets you off your game,” said senior forward Tyler Kolarik earlier this week. “We’ve just go think of them as shadows out there, [as] any other opponent, and just go out there and play.”

While the players themselves think of this as just another game, onlookers have a slightly different view.

“I think it’s going to be a tough game [for Harvard],” said former Harvard and current BC assistant coach Ron Rolston.  “UMass is just getting better and better.”