M. Hockey Heads to Western New York

With Veteran's Day coming up tomorrow, most Harvard students can look forward to a relaxing three-day vacation.

These students also won't be doing any forechecking this weekend.

On the other hand, the Harvard men's hockey team (1-0-0, 1-0-0 ECAC) faces a difficult road trip tomorrow and Saturday, where it will face ECAC rivals Colgate and Cornell, respectively.

"This will be a hell of a test for us," senior goalkeeper Tripp Tracy said.

Colgate (1-3-0, 0-0-0 ECAC) is many people's pick to win the conference. It reached the semifinals of the ECAC Tournament in Lake Placid last season, and it returns many experienced veterans. Heading up the list of returnees is forward Michael Harder (one goal, four assists), who was named to the all-ECAC preseason team.

"Mike Harder is one of the best players in the country right now," Harvard coach Ronn Tomassoni said.

Colgate also features another excellent offensive player in Chris DeProfio. In four games this season, DeProfio has netted four goals and racked up two assists.

While the Red Raiders are traditionally strong up front, their perennial weakness has been in goal. But their tradition of mediocre netminding was broken last season by now-sophomore goaltender Dan Brenzavich (.847 save percentage, 4.14 GAA this season.)

Colgate is coming off a 3-0 shutout victory of Ottawa in a non-league game last weekend, its first win of the young season.

"Colgate is one of the best teams in the league," Tomassoni said. "They're a good, solid hockey team."

"It's going to be a tough game," said freshman forward Craig Adams, who is the current ECAC Rookie of the Week after scoring two goals in a 7-2 romp over Brown.

Seeing Red

On Saturday, the team faces Cornell. The Big Red (0-1-0, 0-0-0 ECAC) played its first game of the season last weekend, a 2-6 non-league loss at Michigan State.

The Big Red returns a number of excellent players from last season. Offensively, senior captain Brad Chartrand (23 career goals, 30 career assists), senior Geoff Lopatka (24 career goals, 22 career assists) and senior Mike Sancimimo (24 career goals, 42 career assists) head the list.

Key defensive returnees are senior Bill Holowatiuk (four career goals, 15 career assists) and junior Chad Wilson (two career goals, 17 career assists.) Holowatiuk and Wilson each scored a goal in the Big Red's loss last weekend.

"They've been primarily a young team the last couple of years," Tomassoni said. "They're an older junior-senior team right now."

Unlike the players, the Big Red's coach is not a returning veteran. This is head coach Mike Schafer's inaugural season at Cornell.

"With a new coach, you don't know what to expect," Tomassoni said. "There's a tremendous rivalry [between Harvard and Cornell]. They'll be pumped to play Harvard."

"Cornell's a difficult place to play," Tracy said.

In Harvard's 2-1 victory at Cornell in February, the Lynah Rink faithful were a tad overzealous in hurling stuff onto the ice. The team was assessed a penalty, and the Crimson used the power play to score the game-winner.

Coming off its trouncing of Brown last weekend, there isn't much the Crimson plans to change when it plays Colgate and Cornell.

"We'd like to stay the same, do exactly what we did last weekend--three solid periods," Tomassoni said.

"[Coach Tomassoni] emphasizes that we can't think too much about the other team," said captain Brad Konik said, who racked up a goal and three assists against the Bears. "The way our system works, if everybody does their job, we can stop anyone."

But Harvard can't afford to rest on its laurels too much.

"We've only played one game," Tracy said. "So we're cautiously optimistic. But it's a long season."

Much of the credit for last week's victory belongs to the defense, both in the neutral zone and behind the blue line. Several of Harvard's goals came off turnovers created by the tough Crimson pressure defense.

Harvard also allowed only 14 shots on goal in the contest, while it pelted Brown netminder Mike Parsons with 32 shots.

"We put pressure on them with the forecheck," Konik said. "When they got the puck, they felt the heat."

This level of effort is something the Crimson will have to continue if its season is to be a success.

"We have a lot of talent, but no real stars," Adams said. "The key to success is a teamwork-based game and hard work."