Icemen Look For First ECAC Win Tonight

In its 1988-89 championship season, the men's hockey team lost three games all season, one of them a 3-1 defeat at Yale.

Ten years later, the Crimson (1-3-0, 0-3-0 ECAC) has already dropped three in as many ECAC games and will return to the Yale Whale this Saturday desperately needing what even its great title team could not secure--a win.

Harvard begins it first multiple-game road trip of the season this weekend, traveling down to Princeton (2-1-0, 2-0-0 ECAC) on Friday and then Yale (2-0-0, 2-0-0 ECAC) on Saturday--yes, the Crimson will be at New Haven on the day of The Game.

Harvard will try to get its season on tracked after an abysmal start, including last week's embarrassing 7-2 and 6-3 home losses against Cornell and Colgate, respectively.

"We have gotten off to a rocky start," said Harvard Coach Ronn Tomassoni. "Each week gives us a chance for a brand new start."

However, Princeton and Yale will be difficult teams to rebound against. The Tigers are currently playing magnificent hockey, sweeping St. Lawrence and Clarkson on the road last weekend.

The Bulldogs dropped both its games last week to the Saints and Golden Knights but are the defending regular season ECAC champions.

"We are playing two very good teams," Tomassoni said. "But on any given night, any team can beat anybody. We just have to work hard."

The primary focus for Harvard this weekend will be tightening up its defense. Breakdowns and a lack of hustle led the Crimson to allow a total of 13 goals against Colgate and Cornell last week.

Too often, the forwards have not recovered to play defense. The defensemen are not checking the opposition tightly enough. And when the Crimson do recover the puck, it has failed to consistently clear the zone.

Additionally, it lost senior defensemen Ben Storey last week to mononucleosis.

"We need to tighten up on defense," Tomassoni said. "We've made some bad miscues. At least the mistakes we're making are correctable."

Both Princeton and Yale will severely test this defense. The Tigers boast one of the most dynamic offenses in the nation, led by its fearsome top unit, "The Orange Line." This line--seniors Jeff Halpern, Scott Bertoli, and Syl Apps who replaced recently graduated Casson Masters--has scored all but two of Princeton's goals this year and last season combined for over 120 points.

Halpern, a Hobey Baker candidate, notched three goals and an assist last weekend against St. Lawrence and Clarkson and finished last year with 53 points.

After defending against the Orange Line, the Crimson will have to battle the Bulldogs, led by junior Jeff Hamilton. Hamilton had a breakthrough season last year, earning 20 goals and 27 assists.

Like Harvard, Yale's offense had a rough opening weekend, registering a goal apiece against St. Lawrence and Clarkson.

St. Lawrence, however, features the ECAC's premier goaltender, Eric Heffler Jr., and the talented Elis look to jumpstart its offense this weekend.

The Crimson will counter with Peter Capouch, who has provided the lone bright spot for the Crimson defense. Capouch has demonstrated an exceptional hockey sense and used it to position himself properly to score his first two goals of his Harvard career last weekend.

Nevertheless, the Crimson offense has struggled almost as much as its defense. Last Saturday's game against Colgate marked the first time this season Harvard slipped three shots past a goaltender in one game.

Harvard simply has not generated enough good scoring chances to win games. The Crimson has been especially plagued with poor passing to create shots and an inability to recover rebounds once those shots have been taken.

Compounding the Crimson's woes has been its undisciplined play. Harvard leads the ECAC in penalty minutes with 96 and has already taken three major penalties this season.

"We have to stop shooting ourselves in the foot," Tomassoni said. "We had two major penalties last weekend, and I don't think we had that many all last year."

Out of the forwards, only sophomore stars Chris Bala and Steve Moore are producing right now for the Crimson. The tandem factored in every single Harvard goal last weekend.

They may find a weakness in the Tigers' defense. Princeton opened the season with a 9-1 loss to Boston University. Right now, the Tigers do not have a top goaltender, still trying to find a replacement for the graduated Erasmo Saltarelli, who finished his career with the best save percentage in Tiger history.

Princeton will start either senior Nick Rankin or freshman David Stathos. Rankin made 28 save Friday night shutting in shutting out the Saints.

Despite losing ECAC player of the year Ray Giroux to graduation, the Bulldogs still feature a veteran defense. Any mistakes it makes are usually compensated by All American senior goaltender Alex Westlund. Westlund enters this weekend with a 2.52 GAA and an excellent. 909 save percentage.

"I don't think we have had a chance to mesh yet," Tomassoni said. "We are a pretty good team, the goals will come."

The Crimson might receive an offensive boost from freshman Jeff Stonehouse, who will make his Harvard debut this weekend. After breaking his hand in the preseason, doctors placed a softer cast over his injury giving him the flexibility to play.

However, the Crimson will lose some size and grit as 6'6, 215 lbs. freshman Kyle Clark separated his shoulder in practice this week. Junior forward Trevor Allman will also not make the trip to attend to a family matter.

Any way Harvard looks at it, it faces a daunting task this weekend. The team has to leave New Haven Saturday night with no worse than a split or risk facing an 0-5 record with games against Clarkson and St. Lawrence looming.

While its too early to worry about post-season ramifications, dropping games to Brown, Cornell and Colgate dug Harvard an early hole.

After the loss to the Red Raiders, junior Matt Scorsune best outlined how the Crimson can begin to climb out:

"Two wins, we gotta go for two wins."