The V-Spot: Yale Deals Harvard a Stinging Dose of Reality

NEW HAVEN, Conn.--Just when you start dreaming about the Harvard men's hockey team, it has a funny way of snapping you back to reality.

After knocking off Princeton 4-3 on Friday night, the calculations already began about playoff scenarios and possible records about finishing in first. After all, why not? Despite having played more games than everyone else in the ECAC, Harvard still stood atop the table, ahead of its nearest rival by seven points. The prospects for a conference title looked surprisingly bright. If the Crimson had managed to defeat Yale and entered the final exam break at 9-3-1, then we would really be dreaming. The Elis, however, had the bucket of cold water cocked and ready to splash, and thanks to a little help from a funny bounce off the boards on a dump-in by captain Ben Stafford, it connected with full force. Harvard looked like anything but a championship-caliber team on Saturday, getting out-hustled and--for one of the few times this year--getting beat up physically. Moreover, its offense was extremely out-of-sync, failing to connect on passes and missing the net on shots.

Yet this loss was as much the product of bad luck as bad play. With two-thirds of the team's hottest scoring line--in the persons of freshmen Tim Petit and Tyler Kolarik--scratched from the lineup with knee injuries, it would be tough for any team to skate away with a victory. It's almost impossible to fault a Harvard team for losing at the Whale. Even the historic 1989 NCAA Championship team, which lost just three games all season long, tasted defeat there.

It certainly couldn't have helped karma any to see Yale honor outgoing Athletic Director Billy Cleary '56--and have the greatest figure in Harvard athletics history remove his coat to reveal the uniform of the enemy. There are no real negatives to take away aside from the loss itself. The weekend was, overall, a good one. The Crimson showed some character on Friday in coming back from a 2-0 deficit against the Tigers and if Kolarik and Petit could have dressed against Yale, it probably would have swept the weekend. "Our guys were quick where I think they were fast," said Yale Coach Tim Taylor '63 in assessing Harvard's play. "But sure, if [Harvard] had all of their guys, they probably would have been more in sync." But the loss was enough to remind everyone that Harvard really isn't a first-place team. However, take a quick glance around the ECAC from Saturday night and one realizes that nobody is. The three teams that stand the most realistic shot of catching the Crimson: Dartmouth dumped No. 15 Cornell 4-1. No. 13 Rensselaer beat St. Lawrence 6-4. And Colgate skated by Vermont 3-2 in overtime. None of the ECAC teams listed above are without substantial flaws. Overall, St. Lawrence and Cornell are probably the most polished and will get stronger down the stretch. Still, both teams have goaltending questions and the Saints rely too heavily on their top line for offense. RPI's ranking is greatly inflated due to wins over such prime non-conference talent as Mercyhurst, Quinnipiac and Notre Dame. Those are the horses in the race with Harvard, which may have the most raw talent of any of them. With everyone losing Saturday night, Harvard still holds impressive leads on almost everyone in the conference.

The Crimson is ahead of Cornell and UVM by six points, in front of surging Dartmouth by eight and in front of the Saints by nine. Even if one of these teams wins out their games in hand, the most Harvard will trail is by four points. And the Crimson will play all of them again except for Vermont. This is an extraordinary position, especially considering the struggles Harvard has had on the blueline this season and the overall youth on this team. The Crimson has eight conference wins so far; it had nine all of last year. If it goes just 5-5 the rest of the way, Harvard will have its best ECAC record since 1993-94, when it went to the Frozen Four. Now just think if Harvard could have held on to its two third-period leads against Vermont. At this point, it will take a collapse of epic proportions for the Crimson not to have home ice for the first round of the playoffs, and so Harvard probably will finish in the top three. The Crimson should be very comfortable playing at Bright by then, since six of its final ten ECAC games are there. It may seem a little silly to be playing a numbers game in January, but by now Harvard has completed over half of its schedule and can settle into exam period knowing that it has set the mark for the rest of the conference. "If you look at it, we've completed the difficult part of our schedule, with only two more road trips left to make," Harvard Coach Mark Mazzoleni said. "We are already getting more comfortable playing at home and should do really well in our remaining games."

This column is not meant to herald Harvard's arrival as the new kings of the ECAC. The Crimson is still a good recruiting class away from that, and its youth and inconsistency will probably conspire to keep it from claiming the top spot this year. But first place is not as rich a prize this season because the NCAA eliminated the automatic bid for the regular-season title winner.

With none of the ECAC teams in the top-12 of the pairwise rankings, only the postseason tournament winner will probably receive an NCAA bid. Harvard is not a top-15 team. Mazzoleni has said so himself. Nor is it an NCAA-tournament caliber team--yet. But no one figured the New York Giants or the Baltimore Ravens to be Super Bowl caliber teams either. So why not Harvard?

There I go dreaming again. . . . Potshots It was a magnificent display of sportsmanship for Yale to honor one of the true legends of amateur athletics in Billy Cleary. Really, the man has done it all--great player, gold medal winner, NCAA Champion coach. What would have been especially nice, though, would be to have his reaction to all the festivities. Cleary, however, refuses to talk to reporters from The Harvard Crimson. It's a shame, too, because, from all accounts, he is otherwise a genuinely good man, but one with a remarkable grudge against this paper. And why the Eli jersey? Why? ... The Princeton game was Harvard's first since the graduation of Tiger goon Benoit Morin. Though the Tigers tried, they couldn't conjure up the same fight-dirty spirit that it did with Morin on the ice. Otherwise, sophomore Dominic Moore might've still had his three points, but with a stick in his back to accompany them. ... Lastly, a big, warm hearty thank you to Mrs. Schulz, the mother of WHRB play-by-play ace, Brian Schulz '01. She hosted Jennie Sullivan and myself along with our WHRB friends for the weekend and fed us more good food in two days than the dining hall serves in two years. We already miss her cheerfulness, exceptional concern and generosity... and those chicken nuggets.