M. Hockey Faces Big ECAC Test

In an early conference test for the Harvard men’s hockey team, St. Lawrence and Clarkson travel to Bright Hockey Center this weekend with first place in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) on the line.

The Crimson is currently 3-4-1 overall after back-to-back non-league losses to Beantown rivals Boston University and Boston College. Despite the defeats, Harvard maintains its 3-2-1 record in the ECAC. The team’s seven league points places Harvard in a tie with Dartmouth for first place in the conference.

Nevertheless, the Crimson must return to its winning ways this weekend in order to maintain the ECAC’s top spot.

Sophomore goalie Will Crothers is healthy after a bout with the flu and looked sharp in Harvard’s 1-0 defeat at BC last Friday, November 23.

Harvard’s main priority will be putting the puck in the net. Though BC is the defending national champion, Eagles junior goalie Tim Kelleher had previously allowed 3.8 goals per game before shutting out the Crimson. Harvard’s dynamic first line of junior Dom Moore and sophomores Tim Pettit and Tyler Kolarik must score if Harvard is to knock off both St. Lawrence and Clarkson.

“We’ve been a little inconsistent up to this point,” said captain Peter Capouch, who will be playing in his 100th career game tomorrow night. “We’ll play a couple good periods and then throw in a bad one, or we’ll play a good game and then we won’t play well. It’s kept us around .500 for the year. If we want to improve, we have to continue to work hard in practice and the goals will come.”

St. Lawrence (3-6, 1-2 ECAC) comes to Cambridge as the ECAC’s defending champion. The Saints triumphed 4-3 in overtime against Providence last Friday, but followed up with a 4-1 loss to Northeastern the next day. Last year, St. Lawrence and Harvard split, with the Crimson taking the team’s final contest in Cambridge, 4-1, last February. The Saints had defeated Harvard in five consecutive battles prior to Harvard’s victory.

St. Lawrence freshman Mike McKenna was last week’s ECAC Goalie of the Week, racking up 30 saves in his team’s victory against the Friars. Earlier this season, McKenna’s partner in crime, fellow freshman Kevin Ackley, also won the Goalie of the Week award. McKenna leads the ECAC with a .917 save percentage, and Ackley is third in the conference at .908. This does not bode well for the Crimson, who failed to score in 26 shots against Kelleher.

However, the key to the game may be power plays. Harvard went the entire game against BC without a power play, a rarity in any hockey game. Sophomore Tim Pettit is tied for the national lead with six power-play goals. He is a weapon Harvard must utilize. Pressure will be put on forwards Dennis Packard and Brett Novak on the forecheck to create opportunities for teammates such as freshman Tom Cavanagh and Kolarik, who can use their speed to force the opposition to commit penalties.

“There’s so much talent on this team,” said senior forward Liam McCarthy. “If we can get everyone to buy into the team concept, we’ll be all set.”

Clarkson (4-6, 3-0) enters the weekend undefeated in conference play. A victory against Brown tomorrow night, followed by a win at Harvard will move the Knights into sole possession of first place in the ECAC. Though Brown is much improved this season, Clarkson enters Providence tomorrow’s game riding a 25-game unbeaten streak against the Bears. As a result, chances are the Knights will be fighting for first place against Harvard on Saturday.

Harvard also split games with Clarkson last year, winning 3-1 on the road but losing at home, 5-4. Clarkson lost to both Northeastern and Providence this past weekend, and thus will likely crave the opportunity to return to league action.

The team is led by co-captain Matt Poapst, who has 10 points on the year, including a team-high eight assists.

Clarkson’s biggest weakness has been its effectiveness on the power play, converting on only seven of 61 attempts (11 percent). The Knights have only averaged 2.27 goals per game this season but historically tend to play the Crimson close. Clarkson leads the career season series 39-37-6.

“We’ve got two big games this weekend, but we’re not worried about who are opponents are—we’re just worried about ourselves,” Capouch said. “If we take care of our game, the score will take care of itself.”