M. Hockey Begins With Mixed Bag

When Harvard men’s hockey coach Mark Mazzoleni refers to his team as a “work in progress,” he probably has

weekends like this past one in mind.

After dropping a 4-2 decision on Saturday night to a Brown team picked by many to finish near the bottom of the ECAC, the Crimson, ranked 11th in the nation going into the weekend, rebounded against No. 15 Dartmouth with a 5-2 win last night to complete its first series of the 2001-02 season.

Call it the first lesson this season for a young Harvard team that includes 18 freshmen and sophomores.

Whereas the Crimson tried to force things to the middle against Brown, they played a much more patient game last night.

“We got to [Dartmouth’s] net and utilized our points. We didn’t force it down low and got good second chance

opportunities,” Mazzoleni said. “Last night we lost our poise, but tonight we stuck with what we had to do.”

Brown 4, Harvard 2

The Crimson drew first blood on Saturday night.

As the Crimson skated with a five-on-three advantage midway through the first period, junior Dominic Moore worked his position on the point to perfection. He collected a pass from freshman defenseman Noah Welch a few feet inside the blue line and beat Brown goaltender Brian Eklund with a blast low to his glove side for a 1-0 lead 12:04 into Harvard’s season.

And while the remainder of the first frame saw several hard hits and a five-on-three power play for the Bears, it

didn’t include any more scoring, but the second period did.

Just a couple of minutes in, Brown winger Keith Kirley found linemate Tye Korbl wide open in the slot. Korbl

then put a one-timer past Harvard goaltender Will Crothers to tie the game at the 2:20 mark of the period.

The Bears took a 2-1 lead a little more than five minutes later on a goal in front by right wing J-F Labarre.

The scoreboard stayed that way until 4:38 had passed in the third period, when Harvard freshman Brendan

Bernakevitch scored his first collegiate goal.

“[Brett] Nowak brought the defense up [in the neutral zone] and then passed it off to me,” Bernakevitch said. “I saw there was a little room above the glove and shot for it. I shot the puck and saw the mesh move and thought, ‘I can’t believe I just scored that.’ It was a nice relief to get that first goal out of the way.”

With the score tied, momentum seemed to swing back to the Crimson, but it didn’t stay that way.

After a barrage of Harvard shots midway through the third period nearly gave the Crimson a one-goal lead, Kirley was able to gather the final rebound and send it to sophomore Pascal Denis along the right-wing boards.

Brown’s quick transition play resulted in an odd-man rush, and Denis blasted a shot past Crothers from the left

face-off dot at 11:19 of the third for what proved to be the game-winner.

And while the Crimson responded with excellent offensive pressure, the Bears were not to be denied, as Brown

defenseman Scott Ford banked in an empty-net goal with 13 seconds left to seal the Crimson’s fate.

Eklund finished the game with 28 saves, while Crothers ended up with 21.

“I thought Crothers played very well. He stopped what he needed to stop. He played a very solid game for us,” Mazzoleni said.

Brown Coach Roger Grillo was very pleased after the game.

“Harvard’s a good team, and to come into their building in the first game of the year and win a big one is huge

for us,” he said. “We took our lumps in the past couple of years, but our guys have battled hard. We wanted it badly and we did the things that we needed to do.”

Harvard 5, Dartmouth 2

Dartmouth jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period on the strength of two power play goals.

Big Green winger Mike Murray started things off by putting a rebound past Crothers 4:21 into the game. Senior center Frank Nardella followed that up with another tally at 12:02 of the first after Harvard had killed all but

one second of a five-on-three Dartmouth advantage.

Harvard then responded with two first-period scores of its own. With just over five minutes to play in the opening frame, forward Dominic Moore sent a shot across Dartmouth goaltender Nick Boucher’s crease. Linemate Tim Pettit collected the rebound next to the goal and tried to wrap it around the left post.

And while Pettit was unsuccessful, the puck found its way to the crashing Aaron Kim, who hammered it home to draw the Crimson to within one with 4:57 to play in the first. Then, after a game misconduct to Dartmouth’s Mike Turner at 16:03 of the opening period gave the Crimson five minutes on the man advantage, it was the Harvard power play’s chance to shine.

After getting a feed from classmate Noah Welch, freshman forward Tom Cavanagh sent in a shot from the left point that Boucher was able to turn aside. However, the rebound took off to the goaltender^Òs right and found its way to Pettit’s waiting stick.

Pettit tucked it inside the post to knot things up at two goals apiece with just 1:05 to play in the period.

A turning came 10:07 into the second period, when Dartmouth’s Trevor Byrne was assessed with a two minute minor for cross-checking 10:07, moments after a Dartmouth goal was disallowed for having a player in the crease.

After the referee’s whistle stopped play, Dartmouth winger Lee Stempniak exchanged pleasantries with Harvard

freshman Jesse Lane. Lane, however, ignored Stempniak’s antics and the Dartmouth player was hit with a

two-minute penalty. All of a sudden, Harvard had a five-on-three for up to two minutes.

As it turned out, the Crimson didn’t need that much time.

Just 17 seconds into the power play, Nowak put a rebound past Boucher to give Harvard its first lead of the game. Byrne came out of the box at that point, but Stempniak stayed in. Less than half a minute later, Moore scored on a quick wrister from the left point off good feeds from Nowak and Lane to make it a 4-2 Harvard lead with 8:36 to play in the period.

It was a devastating turn of events for Coach Bob Gaudet’s team.

“We worked hard to get that goal, but it was called back,” Gaudet said. “And then, bang—we go from a 3-2 lead to being down 4-2,” Gaudet said.

Harvard extended its lead to the final margin of victory 8:45 into the third period, as Nowak rifled a shot past

Boucher from the top of the left faceoff circle.

After the game, Mazzoleni praised his young players on defense and in goal.

“Our defense played extremely well, and [Crothers] made big saves both nights, which is a very positive

indication and a confidence builder,” Mazzoleni said.

TheCrimson will next compete at Vermont and Dartmouth next weekend.