M. Hockey Preview: Aiming for Albany and Onward

For many returning players on the Harvard men’s hockey team, the sound of Maine forward Jon Ronan’s slapshot still echoes indelibly in the recesses of their minds.

It was that shot in overtime that ended an illustrious Harvard run through the ECAC playoffs and into the NCAA tournament last year. And it is that shot that motivates the defending ECAC champion Crimson to achieve even greater success in the coming season.

The personnel is here. Harvard’s only significant loss to graduation was last year’s captain, defenseman Peter Capouch. A fresh crop of young players complements a solid core of veterans that is set on reaching the Frozen Four.

“Our expectations are very high,” said Harvard captain Dominic Moore. “Heading into this year, we’ve got a whole new attitude because we’ve got a ring on our finger now, and we’ve got that extra confidence that helps a lot. We’re expecting great things and we know we have the type of people here who can help accomplish it.”

Forwards

The core of Harvard’s forwards returns this year intact. Led by Moore and senior Brett Nowak, the offense looks to establish a consistent attack.

Whereas at times last year the team altered attacking schemes to adjust to its opponents’ playing style, this year the Crimson offense will be more up-tempo, forcing the opponent to play Harvard’s style of hockey.

The ECAC’s crackdown on obstruction should also favor the faster, quicker teams in the league like Harvard, to the possible detriment of more physical teams like Cornell.

“We have a lot of speed,” junior forward Tyler Kolarik said. “A team like Cornell that doesn’t have a lot of speed or skill shut us down through obstruction and clutching and grabbing. So being on the power play all night is going to be a huge benefit.”

One of the Crimson’s most potent power play performers is junior Tim Pettit, who stands a good chance of improving on his team-high 10 power play goals last season if the Crimson has more time on the man-advantage.

Like Pettit, Kolarik, one of Harvard’s best skaters, is another player likely to benefit from the rules crackdown. Kolarik tallied nine goals and 20 assists last season, and will have substantially more room to move with the puck this season.

Defensemen

The loss of Capouch, the Crimson’s leader by example, leaves large responsibilities for his successors at the blueline. This year, the team will look for leadership on defense from a group of capable players, including standout sophomore defenseman Noah Welch.

“I have to step it up this year,” Welch said. “I’m not a freshman anymore, and I can’t make freshman mistakes. But that’s fine—it motivates me to play better.”

Harvard has been plagued by a lack of defensive depth in recent years. Injuries and simple lack of manpower forced the Crimson to play forwards on the blueline or rotate only two lines of defensemen.

That problem should finally end this season. Harvard replaces Capouch with two freshmen, bringing its total of defensemen to seven.

The stiff competition along the blueline—with seven men competing for six playing slots—should motivate all the defensemen. In addition to Welch, juniors Kenny Smith, Blair Barlow and Dave McCulloch, and sophomore Ryan Lannon will share the mantle of leadership.

Freshmen Tom Walsh and Peter Hafner will also compete for time.

Goaltending

Playing in his rookie campaign, sophomore Dov Grumet-Morris turned heads down the stretch as he secured the No. 1 goaltending position.

Harvard’s success during the second half of the season was due in large part to the outstanding play of Grumet-Morris, who survived the troubles that made for a grim 2-6-1 February and turned them into the success story that was the Crimson’s late playoff push and ECAC championship.

Entering his second year, Grumet-Morris looks to use the confidence gained from last year’s campaign and channel it into a successful full season. While Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni shuffled his goalies for much of last year, there is no question who the leader of the pack is this season.

“One of the real positives [of last season’s run] was that we got such consistent and excellent goaltending on a nightly basis, due to that fact Grumet-Morris was our No. 1 goaltender,” Mazzoleni said.

Coaching

Now in his fourth year with the Crimson, Mazzoleni has improved Harvard hockey each season.

Taking over in 1999, Mazzoleni saw the steady rise of his team in the ECAC standings, going from a sixth place finish in his first year to a third place finish two seasons ago to last year’s ECAC championship and NCAA tournament berth.

Mazzoleni and assistant coach Nate Leaman are joined this year by newcomer Sean McCann ‘94, a former Crimson captain and Hobey Baker finalist.

McCann replaces former assistant coach Ron Rolston, who departed last May for an assistant coaching position at Boston College. McCann hopes to translate his experience as a defenseman at Harvard and as a seven-year professional to this year’s Crimson team.

Volunteer coach Bruce Irving will work as the goaltending coach and run the junior varsity program.

Special Teams

With the league vowing to cut down on the clutching-and-grabbing type of hockey that has turned so many fans away from the game, special teams will play a bigger role in the coming season now that officials will be watching out more closely for obstruction.

Harvard finished sixth in the ECAC on the power play and fourth in the penalty kill in 2001-02. The Crimson will make a conscious effort to improve in both categories, especially on the penalty kill, which came as a bit of a disappointment last year after producing an abundance of shorthanded goals two seasons ago.

“We want to lead the league in shorthanded goals, maybe lead the nation,” Kolarik said. “I think we have the ability to do that. We have enough talent this year to have two solid units of guys [on the power play] who can score goals.”