M.Hockey Hoping to Repeat ECAC Tournament Success

Last season, the Harvard men's hockey team's season resembled Alice's magical crossing through the looking glass.

After a rough regular season, the team hobbled into the ECAC tournament as the eighth seed, barely expected to make it through the preliminary round. Before the tournament was over, though, the Crimson had knocked off the league's best en route to an ECAC final appearance in Lake Placid. But then the magic wore off as the other Cinderella team, the Cornell Big Red, stormed into the NCAA playoffs.

In a stroke of deja vu, this year's squad has endured the same rough season, number eight seed, and home preliminary round match-up. But can they successfully cross through the looking glass a second time?

This weekend will tell the tale as the Crimson (11-17-2, 10-11-2 ECAC) travels to Lyna Arena in Ithaca for tonight's first quarterfinal match-up against (you guessed it) the Cornell Big Red in a rematch of last year's ECAC final.

After a solid 4-2 defeat of St. Lawrence at home on Tuesday night, the Crimson is pumped up to face the Big Red in the three-game series this weekend.

"We are all looking forward to playing them. This is an intense and close rivalry," freshman Scott Turco said.

The rivalry not only dates back to the Crimson's heart breaking 2-1 loss in the ECAC finals last year but also to the two other times the teams met this year. In both match-ups, Harvard played hard physical hockey and proved it could keep up with Cornell. However, the Crimson let both games slip away from it in the third period, losing by a single goal each time. To keep that from happening again, the Crimson is going to have to play a full 60 minutes of hard and aggressive hockey against a team known for its physical play.

"Cornell is a talented and aggressive team. If we want to win, we need to show up to play," freshman Matt Scorsune said.

That ability to stay focused, Harvard's greatest weakness all season, will be put to the ultimate test in Ithaca. Not only must the Crimson face a strong Cornell team, but they must also contend with rowdy fans famous for throwing fish out on the ice before games against Harvard.

"The fans up there are really out of control. They can intimidate you but they can also get you up for the game if you don't let them intimidate you," Scorsune said.

Harvard will have to feed off of this energy in order to prevail over a very balanced Cornell squad. Like Harvard, Cornell focuses on physical play but they also have the advantage of fast skaters and one of the best goalies in the ECAC. However, Harvard does not plan on changing its game strategy but instead bringing it up another notch.

"We plan on doing the same thing which we did against St. Lawrence--skate hard, play the body, and press the net," Turco said.

Only time will tell if that is enough to cross back through the looking glass one more time.