M. Hockey Dominates Cornell, Colgate

The Harvard men’s hockey team dug deep this weekend andfound some much-needed confidence, ending up with a home sweep of No. 9 Cornell and Colgate by scores of 4-3 and 6-1, respectively.

The pair of victories vaulted the Crimson (3-2-1, 3-2-1 ECAC) back into first place in the ECAC.

Considering Harvard’s circumstances going into the weekend, though, the result was nothing short of miraculous.

On Friday night, the Crimson was without the services of Hobey Baker Award candidate Dominic Moore because of his disqualification penalty against Dartmouth on Nov. 10.

Harvard was also without Aaron Kim and Brendan Bernakevitch, out all weekend due to injuries, and starting goaltender Will Crothers joined them on the sidelines battling an illness.

However, the Crimson rose to the occasion.

“I’m very, very proud and happy for our team,” Harvard Coach Mark Mazzoleni said. “We’ve gone through some adversity, but I knew we would respond. They didn’t let me down. This is a big four points for us. This helps us an awful lot in our league.”

“It’s just huge to sweep,” said freshman goalie Dov Grumet-Morris, who was outstanding in place of Crothers. “We had been talking all week that this was going to be a turning point.”

And while the Crimson had several heroes in its first home sweep since Jan. 5-6, 2001, none was bigger throughout the weekend than Grumet-Morris, whose confidence seemed to grow with every save. He had 43 between the two games.

“Dov did an exceptional job. To step in the way he did was very impressive,” Mazzoleni, who won his 250th career game against Colgate said.

Harvard 4, Cornell 3 (OT)

Those of you who went down to New Haven on Friday missed about as good a

hockey game as you’ll ever see.

With Cornell (5-1-0, 3-1-0 ECAC) leading 3-2 with under a minute to play,

Harvard’s Noah Welch showed the sellout crowd of 2,776 at Bright Hockey

Center the combination of composure, strength and skill that marks him as one of the best young defensemen in the nation.

As the Cornell faithful stood on its feet anticipating its team’s fifthvictory of the young season, Welch collected a pass just above the left faceoff circle and squared himself to Big Red goaltender Matt Underhill.

Then, Welch blasted the puck over Underhill’s left shoulder and into the twine, silencing the Red Sea.

“That was a great play by Noah,” Mazzoleni said of the game-tying goal. “He

showed tremendous poise. That was a big-time shot.”

The momentum had suddenly swung Harvard’s way, and a big play by junior Brett Nowak kept it there.

Just over one minute into overtime, Tyler Kolarik fired a shot from the high slot. Underhill made the initial save but was unable to control the rebound.

A mad scramble ensued, as everyone on the ice converged around the goal. In the midst of the crowd, though, Nowak’s stick pushed the puck past the line 1:14 into the extra session, touching off a mad celebration both on and off the ice.

It was fitting that the game-winner for Harvard came off a rebound, as both coaches saw that as the key to the game.

“We talked all week about second-chance opportunities, especially against this team with such a good goalie,” Mazzoleni said.

“Matt struggled all night controlling rebounds,” Cornell Coach Mike Schafer said. “He wasn’t smothering the puck around the net, and that’s very unusual for him.”

Before Welch’s goal, though, it looked like Schafer would add to his perfect record at Bright and run Harvard’s winless streak against the Big Red to seven games.

The Big Red took a 3-2 lead earlier in the third period as winger Denis Ladouceur took a pass on the tape from center David Kozier and put it past

Grumet-Morris at the 6:59 mark.

Cornell also had a lead earlier in the period, as Sam Paolini put the Big Red up 2-1 just 12 seconds into the period. However, freshman Tom Cavanagh knotted things up with his first collegiate goal less than two minutes later.

Harvard sophomore Tim Pettit scored the first goal of the game at 16:07 of the opening period. The Big Red made it 1-1 at 2:32 of the second on a score byKrzysztof Wieckowski.

Harvard 6, Colgate 1

The Crimson jumped out to a quick lead on Saturday night and never looked back.

Just 1:35 into the contest, senior Jeff Stonehouse put a rebound past Colgate goaltender Jason Lefevre for his first goal of the season and a 1-0

Harvard lead.

Midway through the period, the Raiders looked to tie the score by applying good offensive pressure on the power play.

That aggressiveness soon harmed Colgate, though, as a turnover in theHarvard zone quickly created an odd-man rush going the other way. Nowak brought the puck down and made a picture-perfect pass to teammate Dennis

Packard, who put it past Lefevre for a 2-0 Crimson lead with 10:09 to play in the first period.

“It was our game plan going in to press when they were on the power play,” Packard said. “Brett did a nice job and put the puck right on my stick.”

The eventual game-winner, Packard’s goal was both Harvard’s first shorthanded tally and his own first on the season.

Sophomore Kenny Smith then made it a three-goal advantage on a wrister from the blue line that beat Lefevre high to his glove side with just over a minute to play in the period.

Colgate came out strong in the second period, and made it a two-goal game on Kyle Doyle’s goal at the 7:25 mark.

The Raiders, however, would not draw any closer the rest of the way.

Nowak made sure of that, as he and Packard came down the ice once again on a two-on-one. Nowak’s initial offering was turned away to the corner, but he simply outhustled everyone else on the ice to get the rebound. Once it was on his stick, he brought it back out front and promptly blasted it by Lefevre to make it a 4-1 lead 14:37 into the period.

Nowak’s tally was his second on the weekend, tying him with Pettit for the team lead in goals and running his point total to 10, also tops for Harvard.

At that point, Colgate Coach Don Vaughan went to his bench and substitutedsophomore David Cann for Lefevre. Unfortunately for the Raiders, it didn’t help much.

The Crimson would score twice in the final frame, both courtesy of Harvard blue-liners.

After taking a pinpoint pass from Cavanagh in the neutral zone, Welch stormed toward the Raider goal, burying the puck over Cann’s shoulder for a 5-1 Crimson advantage with 4:27 to play.

The goal was Welch’s third on the season, best among both Harvard’s freshmen and defensemen.

Sophomore Dave McCulloch capped the scoring with a blast from the point through a nice screen by Liam McCarthy with under two minutes to play. The power play goal— Harvard’s only such score on the night— was assisted by

freshman Andrew Lederman, his second of the game.

Vaughan declined to comment following the game.