M. Hockey Faces Off Against RPI

On the wings of an unexpected third-period comeback to tie Brown last weekend, the Harvard men's hockey team will continue its quest for a conference victory tomorrow night against Rensselaer.

"We dug ourselves in a hole, and now we've got to chip ourselves out," said Harvard Coach Ronn Tomassoni.

If momentum were the only factor, Harvard has the advantage. Last weekend's performance, coupled with the recent upset over Boston University, seems to indicate that the Crimson (2-5-1, 0-5-1 ECAC) is poised to turn its season around.

Meanwhile, the Engineers (4-4-0, 1-2-0 ECAC) enter the game in the midst of a three-game losing streak. RPI's young defense has been largely unable to neutralize its opposition, allowing 12 goals in 3 conference games. And historically, the Crimson has been able to beat the Engineers, leading the overall series 32-21-2.

But a Harvard victory is far from guaranteed. According to Tomassoni, the most important thing was for the team to be ready to play 60 minutes of hockey.

"We have to be more consistent with our intensity," Tomassoni said.

The Crimson has been generally slow and sluggish in the opening periods of the game--of the 21 total goals Harvard has scored this season, 11 have come in the third period. On the other side of the coin, opposing teams have scored 27 of 35 goals against the Crimson during the first two periods of the game.

"If you're not ready to play hard for the entire 60 minutes, you can't be ready to play against any team, no matter how good or bad they are," Tomassoni said.

And although Harvard's offense has certainly picked up--scoring 9 goals over the last two games--it still suffers from defensive breakdowns, namely of the kind that cost Harvard the victory last weekend.

According to Tomassoni, junior J.R. Prestifilippo will most likely start in goal against RPI. Prestifilippo, who did not start in the last two games against Brown and B.U., has looked shaky this season and is currently posting a .825 save percentage and 5.58 goals against average. For RPI, goalie Joel Laing, who posts a .881 save percentage, will probably start between the pipes.

Fixing these defensive lapses will not be easy. Harvard's defense--still playing without senior defenseman Ben Storey (mononucleosis)--will meet a formidable RPI offense. Though the Engineers have not been winning games, they have been tickling the twine fairly consistently, boasting a four goals per game average.

Compensating for the Engineers' loss of their two leading scorers to graduation are senior forward Danny Riva, who has five goals and six assists for the season, and freshman forward Matt Murley, who has two goals and 11 assists.

Tomassoni is confident that Harvard's offense can keep up.

"We're starting to score goals," he said, pointing to the team's performance during the last two games.

But at the same time, Tomassoni sees room for improvement. So far, most of the Crimson's offense has come from sophomore Steve Moore and captain Craig Adams. Moore leads the team in points with five goals and five assists, followed by Adams who has four goals and one assist for the season.

"More balanced scoring would be nice," Tomassoni said.

RPI ranks slightly ahead of Harvard in the standings, the Engineers' lone conference win coming from an 8-5 drumming over Dartmouth in their conference opener.

The Crimson will also have to cope with a number of injuries. Harvard will be skating without sophomore forward Chris Bala, who is out with a broken wrist. Freshman forward Kyle Clark is also questionable for tomorrow night.

On the defensive end, both freshman Peter Capouch (bruised shoulder) and junior Matt Scorsune (separated shoulder) will probably play despite their injuries.

After tomorrow night's game against RPI, Harvard will play a weekend series at home against Clarkson and St. Lawrence.