The "V" Spot: Driving Out Old Demons

Before Saturday's contest, the Yale band offered the following warm salutation to the Harvard men's hockey team: "Welcome to the Whale. Prepare to Die."

Over the years, that's just what Harvard has done at Yale--died. It seemed that every time the Crimson strolled into town, the Bulldogs had the old Forum ghosts on loan from Montreal. Harvard last won at Ingalls Rink back in 1993, and even the 1989 team lost there.

But this time, Harvard brought in a special group of exorcists--family. With the large number of players from the Greater New York Area, relatives flocked in higher than usual numbers to watch their sons and nephews play.

No one was louder than junior winger Chris Bala's uncle, Jam. Before each match this past weekend, the good man met the team at the rink and fired it up with some crazed cheers that punctuated the usual pregame din.

Buttressed with this karma, the Crimson performed some black magic, casting aside demons of the past in knocking off Princeton and Yale, 4-1 and 5-2, respectively--executing its first road sweep since Jan. 2-3, 1999 and its first ECAC victory since Jan. 7 of this year.

"Uncle Jam set the tone for us," junior defenseman Tim Stay said.

Winning would have been trick enough, but the team also looked like an entirely different squad in the process. Suddenly, everything that Harvard Coach Mark Mazzoleni has preached all year manifested itself on the ice.

This Crimson team played aggressively, rushing through the neutral zone with speed, generating numerous shots on net while giving senior goaltender J.R. Prestifilippo virtually the weekend off.

Harvard ceased its dull, counterattacking style and replaced it with a smothering forecheck and odd-man rushes where even the defenseman would join the offense. The forwards even smartly rotated back. Harvard outshot the Elis 39-23, after limiting the Tigers to just 11 shots the night before.

It was quite a show.

"Our kids came back and played very well," Mazzoleni said. "We played a complete game both offensively and defensively. We deserved to win."

The weekend witnessed the re-emergence of junior stars, center Steve Moore and winger Chris Bala. Moore and Bala finally displayed their full offensive potential that was frustratingly dormant for most of the season.

Moore, who has achieved a comfort level with his linemates, senior Scott Turco and junior Harry Schwefel, deposited two goals and three assists on the weekend, earning the first star Friday night and the second star on Saturday.

He set up the game-winner against Princeton, threading a pass through two Tiger defenders to Turco, who was charging hard to the net at 6:57 of the second period.

Moore also integrated the physical side of his game well this weekend, barreling through players to retrieve the puck and leveling a couple of chumps, but he did not add to his team-leading 47 penalty minutes.

Bala, with a little morale boost from his uncle, impressed with his finesse and speed, clicking with Steve's younger brother, freshman center Dominic Moore.

The pair connected for the goal of the weekend when Moore slid a pass to Bala on a two-on-one rush and Bala deked Yale goalie Trevor Hanger to the ground, pulling the puck across the net on the backhand and putting it home to give Harvard a 3-1 lead.

"Things are starting to go our way, myself included," Bala said. "We did what we had to do for the win."

While Harvard's stars posted most of the numbers, the supporting cast sustained the momentum. Mazzoleni singled out the all-sophomore fourth line of center Jeff Stonehouse and wingers Kyle Clark and Derek Nowak after the Yale game for their unsung, gritty play.

It was needed because as the Crimson turned up its jets offensively, both Yale and Princeton responded by increasing their physical play. In earlier games, this has proven to be sound strategy as the clutching and grabbing have taken Harvard out of its game.

But this was a different Crimson team.

Senior defenseman Matt Scorsune took Princeton goon Benoit Morin's best shots and pushed right back. Sophomore defenseman Leif Ericson responded to Yale player Paul Lawson's extra shoving by dropping the gloves with him in an almost-fight.

If further evidence was needed that the powers that be were finally blessing the Crimson, on both nights Harvard benefited from a soft goal--Bala's roll-in against the Tigers and sophomore defenseman Peter Capouch's relatively weak slapshot that fooled Hanger.

Even the Eli faithful got into the act, peppering the ice with hangers in honor of their graduating goalie. The pelting earned their team two minor delay-of-game penalties late in the third period, which effectively killed any chance of a Yale comeback.

Once Harvard managed to get luck on its side--the Crimson couldn't buy a bounce last week against Clarkson--the metamorphosis was complete and the demons were cast out of some very haunted houses.

The wins also leave the Crimson in prime position to earn home ice for the first round of the playoffs. Next week's regular season finale brings to Bright the perpetually beatable Union and a nose-diving RPI. Another sweep would almost guarantee a top-five finish.

"This weekend was the difference between home ice and not making the playoffs," Stay said. "We're hitting our peak at just the right time."

Of course, with Harvard there's no telling if this magic act was a one-time-only performance. But it certainly was fun and one that could grow to be very popular in Cambridge in the weeks, and years, ahead.