Did Someone Say McDonald?

While most every Harvard sports fan was crammed into the Yale Bowl, the men’s hockey team hit its stride far from quietly. In what was one of the most enjoyable Crimson hockey weekends in recent memory, Harvard toppled a nationally ranked Cornell team, 4-3, in overtime and then proceeded to massacre Colgate, 6-1, on Saturday. On the strength of those wins, the Crimson assumed first place in the ECAC.

Harvard emerged victorious largely on the strength of two factors: a consistent fast-skating, hard-checking attack and the composed play of two freshmen. Harvard’s solid net minding came from freshman Dov Grumet-Morris, who started his first two collegiate games. His steady presence in goal combined with the level headed calm exhibited by freshman defenseman Noah Welch in netting Friday’s game-tying goal with a mere 40 ticks hanging on the clock enabled the Crimson to take away four points from a trying weekend.

Cornell placed steady pressure on the freshman all night, and Grumet-Morris responded by stopping 23 shots for his first career win. The next night against a weaker Colgate squad, he turned aside 20 shots.

Grumet-Morris professed to be lacking the butterflies that accompany many in their first collegiate game, at least as soon as he hit the ice.

“I felt pretty prepared coming in,” Grumet-Morris said.

Still, starting his first game against Harvard hockey archival, and nationally ranked, Cornell was something he kept in the back of his mind.

“Cornell is a tough team,” Grumet-Morris said. “You’ve got to respect them; their size, their ability.”

Indeed, Cornell looked to be in firm control of the Crimson for most of the third period. That all changed when the smooth playmaking of Welch killed the Big Red lead and sent the teams tied into overtime.

With a minute left to play in the game and the puck in Cornell’s end, Coach Mark Mazzoleni pulled Grumet-Morris for the extra skater. Then, with 40 ticks remaining, Welch collected a pass from the corner at the top of the left face-off circle and fired a shot just under the cross bar and past Cornell’s goalie Matt Underhill.

Coach Mazzoleni was very impressed with the efforts of his freshman defenseman.

“That was a great play by Noah,” Mazzoleni said. “He showed tremendous poise. That was a big-time shot.”

Poise from unexpected places was one of the keys to the Crimson victories. The other key to victory was the consistent aggressive play that was evident from all the men in white and crimson. That aggressive play was embodied in gritty physical work done by sophomore wings Tyler Kolarik and Dennis Packard and junior center Brett Nowak.

The efforts of Kolarik, Packard and Nowak resulted in the game-winning overtime goal against Cornell. With 1:14 gone in the extra period, Kolarik fired a hard shot at Underhill from the slot. Underhill made the save, but was unable to hold onto the puck, prompting a mad rush to the net by Kolarik, Packard and Nowak. In a confusion of pushing and shoving bodies, Nowak somehow managed to find the puck and slipped it passed Underhill for the game-winner.

Coach Mazzoleni was thrilled by the effort his players put in to attack the loose puck.

“You got to get second chance scoring opportunities, “ Mazzoleni said. “We scored the winner on that, by getting the puck to the net and crashing.”

The Crimson won two games this weekend on the steady play of its freshmen and a renewed emphasis on fast, physical play. Harvard will need both those facets of its game to have continued success, especially with the difficulty of the Crimson’s next two opponents. Harvard faces Boston University tomorrow night at Bright Hockey Center, and then heads to Chestnut Hill to play the Eagles at Conte Forum on Friday night.

While acknowledging that the road ahead is challenging, Mazzoleni and his Crimson have plenty to be optimistic about.

“This was a building block for us,” Mazzoleni said. I’m very, very proud for our team. These are four big points for us this weekend. It helps an awful lot in our league.”

“We’ll be a much better team with each passing game, and with each passing week.”