Icemen Set for Dartmouth, Vermont

Going into the final two weekends of the regular season, it's hard for the Harvard men's hockey team not to think ahead.

When the magic number is one--the third-ranked Crimson (18-2-2 overall, 15-1-2 ECAC) needs just one more win or an RPI loss to clinch the ECAC title--depth perception becomes skewed.

Things further away look bigger. Like the ECAC Tournament less than two weeks from now.

Or, even better, the NCAAs--which start a month from today.

But Harvard has four more games to wrap up, including tonight's contest against Dartmouth in Hangover, N.H., and tomorrow night's against Vermont in Burlington.

So before the team starts dreaming of Lake Placid (the ECAC final), it has to put the Big Green and the Catamounts to sleep.

Harvard has faced both Dartmouth (9-13-0 overall, 7-11-0 ECAC) and Vermont (12-11-3 overall, 10-7-1 ECAC) this season, dispatching both teams at Bright Hockey Center, 6-4 and 4-0 respectively.

Road Troubles

Harvard, however, was not entirely pleased with its performance on the road last weekend against Cornell and Colgate.

Although the Crimson pulled out two victories in Nowhere Land (up state New York, for the uninitiated), both games found Harvard struggling to score, and against Colgate, the Crimson needed a late comeback to win.

"We had the problem of playing down to the competition's level [last weekend]," junior Derek Maguire said. "We can't do that again."

Playing down to the Big Green's level means playing the type of hockey that has cost Dartmouth five of its last seven games.

But the Big Green boasts some talented forwards, including juniors Scott Fraser and Tony DelCarmine and rookie Bill Kelleher.

Fraser, a 6'0", 200 pound wing leads the team in scoring with 17 goals and 18 assists. With support from Kelleher and DelCarmine, this first line can score goals in hurry.

The problem for the Big Green this season has been stopping the goals from scoring in a hurry. With a slew of freshman defenders, Dartmouth has allowed opponents to outscore it by 20 goals this season.

In goal, both junior Mike Bracco and senior Vern Guetens have goals-against averages over 3.9 (5.12 and 3.91 respectively).

The Land of Ice and Snow

But if (when?) Harvard gets past Dartmouth, the Crimson has to face a team with slightly better goaltending.

Vermont has Christian Soucy, and everyone knows the sophomore netminder from Gatineau, Que., can keep the black biscuit out of the proverbial oven.

"Actually, [Soucy] lives right near me in Canada, just a couple of houses down the street," sophomore Steve Martins said. "He's proved he can play."

Soucy garnered ECAC Player of the Week honors for his performance last weekend, as he posted 81 saves in two games, holding Princeton and Yale to 3 scores between them.

"Soucy's been playing well lately," Maguire said. "We're just going to jump all over him and get a lot of shots off.

"Coach [Tomassoni] has been stressing that to be a great team, we have to keep the intensity up," Maguire said.

Of course, against Catamounts and Soucy, the Crimson will need more than intensity. Harvard will need shots on target.

Last time the two teams met, the Crimson struggled with Soucy for two periods but then exploded in the third for four goals.

And it was freshman Tripp Tracy who came out with the shutout, as the Catamounts had no answer for him or the Crimson defense.

That was at home, however. On the road, Harvard has to worry about Gutterson Field House and the fans that fill it to the brim for every game.

"Vermont definitely has one of the toughest buildings to play in," Martins said. "The place is crazy."