EA Sports: M. Hockey Shows Great Potential

It’s rare that a hockey team can lose to perhaps the worst team in the league and still call its weekend “successful.” Harvard found itself caught in that same situation last night, and it has Brown to thanks for it.

The Bears played smart hockey in upsetting the Crimson, clogging the defensive zone area close to the goal and daring Harvard to break through. And the overzealous Crimson fell right into the trap.

Time and again, Harvard players attempted to skate through the Brown defense. And they were almost good enough to do it.

It was clear Saturday that Dom Moore was the most talented player on the ice. And he was almost talented enough to beat multiple Brown defenders on the way to the goal. Tom Cavanaugh’s impressive skating was almost good enough for him to create opportunities by himself. As a team, Harvard was almost quick enough to just skate around Brown defenders.

But Saturday night, these “almosts” translated into nothing but turnovers. And when Harvard refused to adjust its play, the turnovers—and frustration—mounted. The Crimson nearly equaled its high for turnovers from last season, and that came against eventual national champion Boston College.

“We’ve had a tendency to try to do too much individually when we’ve gotten down,” Harvard Coach Mark Mazzoleni said. “Instead of playing as a unit of five, we tried to do too many things one-on-one.”

And this was against Brown. If Harvard couldn’t beat the Bears by a series of one-on-one efforts, it wasn’t going to have a chance doing that against more talented teams such as Dartmouth.

Harvard knew it couldn’t just skate around the quicker, more skilled Dartmouth team. The Big Green boasts talent comparable to Harvard’s, and it crushed the Crimson 7-0 last year.

So Harvard spread the puck, used the defensemen on offense and tried to create traffic in front of the net. It was teamwork by necessity. And the result was a complete turnaround from the game before.

Harvard created traffic in front of Boucher, and many of the shots that produced unlucky bounces against Brown suddenly became timely rebounds to open skaters against Dartmouth.

After years in the ECAC basement, Dartmouth is one of the best teams in the conference, and a trendy pick to win the league title. The Big Green may be a skilled team, but Harvard dominated them this weekend.

Harvard dictated the pace of the game after Dartmouth’s two early goals. Halfway through the second period, it began to control the game. By thethird, it was clear that Dartmouth was the frustrated, undisciplined team.

The lesson was clear. No Crimson skater is good enough to win games by himself. But in a fluid, up-tempo game where the offensive lines function as a unit, Harvard can be scary good. Good enough to rout a team that many feel is the best in the ECAC.

But Harvard is smiling after this weekend because it knows that things should improve. Fourteen freshmen and sophomores saw significant ice time this weekend, and the team is still learning to play with each others. As Mazzoleni solidifies the lines and the freshmen begin to adjust to college hockey, the stretches of play seen in the second have of the Dartmouth game should become more frequent and more impressive.

Also encouraging were the early returns on Harvard’s questions at defense and goal. The defense figured to face a long weekend, with captain Pete Capouch not playing because of injury. Without Capouch, every blueliner on the ice was a freshman or sophomore. None of the defensive pairs had every played with each other.

But against stiff odds, the defense held strong. There were few of the odd-man rushes and turnovers in The defensive zone that plagued the Crimson last season. The Crimson allowed only 53 shots on goal for the weekend. Last year, the defense regularly gave up more than 30 a game. Last year, the defense regularly gave up more than 30 a game.

Crothers also impressed, in just his first-ever full weekend in goal. Crothers made both the routine and the occasional impressive save. Most of the goals scored against him this weekend were on shots that surprised him, ones off of rebounds or skates that are hard for any goaltender.

Most importantly, Crothers and the team never got rattled, not even when Dartmouth picked up the two quick goals to start the game.

“After they scored two goals, it’s easy to say ‘here we go again,’” Moore said. “It’s a real good sign for our team that we managed to stay on an even keel.”

Don’t expect everything to go as well as it did last night, however. With so many freshmen and sophomores, it’s unrealistic to expect the offense, defense and goaltending to all perform well each weekend. The defense will make characteristic youthful mistakes, and Crothers may let in a goal or two. We’ll likely even see flashes of the uninspired play against Brown.

The Crimson can also expect teams to emulate Brown’s slow, physical, defensive style in the future—except these opponents will have far more talent, making Harvard’s job even tougher.

In all, there will be many bumps on the road ahead as the team slowly gains experience. But judging from Harvard’s performance last night, at the end of that road should lie one impressive hockey team.