M. Hockey Has Hands Full in Beanpot

The Harvard men’s hockey team hasn’t skated away with the Beanpot since Feb. 8, 1993.

To put that in perspective, legendary Crimson coach Billy Cleary ’56 had ended his tenure behind the Harvard bench only three years before, and current coach Mark Mazzoleni was then an assistant at the University of Minnesota.

Crimson winger Dennis Packard turned 11 years old the next day. Freshman forward Andrew Lederman wasn’t even 10.

In short, it’s been awhile since the Harvard faithful was able to call its team the best in Boston. That could change this year with the No. 14 Crimson (9-8-3, 8-5-2 ECAC) playing arguably its best hockey since the 1993-94 campaign.

But it won’t be easy for Harvard. Not after being swept on the road by league rivals No. 11 Cornell and Colgate.

With the Crimson still trying to find its legs after the exam break and its collective tank on empty thanks to the long weekend road trip, Harvard will need to refocus and put forth its best effort if it hopes to skate off with the ’Pot.

“The difficult thing is that when you’re in the hunt for the league title you can’t really talk about [the Beanpot],” said Harvard Coach Mark Mazzoleni. “We [played] Friday and Saturday, had a short meeting on Sunday, and now we’re playing on Monday.”

“We’ll just play [one weekend game] going into the Beanpot next year, but we have to live with [the schedule] this year.”

Nevertheless, Mazzoleni knows how important this tournament is, both to the school and the city.

“We have a tremendous amount of respect for the Beanpot,” he said. “We have to get to the job done. It’s very

much up for grabs, and we’ve proven that when we’re at the top of our game we can beat anyone.”

With one of the more balanced Beanpot fields in recent memory, there is no such thing as an easy game for any of the teams in the tournament.

Harvard is no exception. Its first-round opponent, Northeastern, has been one of the hottest teams in Hockey East lately.

The Huskies (14-10-3, 8-7-2 Hockey East) went 5-2-1 in the month of January and has won 12 of its last 17 games after a slow start to the season.

Northeastern’s performance last month is even more impressive considering its competition. The Huskies split a home-and-home series with No. 10 Boston University and took both games of their series with No. 9 UMass-Lowell.

The Huskies have a 3-1 record against ECAC competition this season, including consecutive wins over Clarkson, St. Lawrence, and Princeton.

“We’re playing a very good Northeastern team,” Mazzoleni said. “They have a speed game up front, and they’re

very quick with their forwards. With Bruce Crowder [coaching], they play extremely hard—a very physical, up-tempo game. They’ll play the body.”

As it turns out, Northeastern boasts perhaps the nation’s very best college hockey player in senior captain Jim Fahey.

Fahey’s numbers this season have been nothing short of spectacular. His scoring line of 12-21-33 is tied for best in the nation among defensemen.

Fahey is also tied for third place on the Hockey East’s overall point-scoring list.

Fahey has received the second-most votes in fan balloting for the Hobey Baker Award, given to the best player in the country.

No one from Northeastern has ever won the Hobey. Fahey may be the first.

But that’s a question for another day. The issue now is whether or not the Crimson will be able to control Fahey’s rare combination of power and finesse along the blue line.

“We need to be very cognizant when he’s on the ice,” Mazzoleni said. “He likes to jump up to the offensive side of it, and that team looks to him. For us, it’s more of an awareness. We need to make sure that when they counterattack we take away his space coming back the other way and not allow him to become part of the offense.”

Crowder, more than anyone, appreciates Fahey’s ability on both ends of the ice.

“Jim gets plenty of ice time and he is more of the trigger guy now,” he wrote in an e-mail. “He plays 40-plus minutes a night and is working with four freshman defensemen and a freshman goalie.”

From the play of Husky goaltender Keni Gibson, though, it would be hard to guess he was a rookie.

Gibson, who has emerged as the starter after entering the season as Jason Braun’s backup, made 38 saves in recording his first collegiate shutout at BU and was between the pipes for both wins over Lowell.

Gibson has gone 11-4-1 overall this season and has a very impressive 1.98 goals against average in Hockey East play.

“Keni was brought in to improve the goaltending position,” Crowder said. “We were able to bring him along slowly and he has given us some [consistent] play.”

The last time Harvard and Northeastern met was the consolation match-up of last February’s Beanpot— a very sloppy 8-7 win for the Huskies and a game Mazzoleni referred to as “the low point of our season last year.”

With improvements in the defensive zone for both teams, the chances of a repeat performance are slim.

“I think it will be much lower scoring than [last year], but still probably a one-goal game,” Harvard captain Peter Capouch wrote in an e-mail. “We will have to make sure that we play very tight in our defensive zone. The coaches have been stressing that all year, and we are getting better but it has to be our main focus against NU and the rest of the year.”

After recent Beanpot disappointments, Capouch said that the Crimson is primed for a title run. The Crimson has had a hard time beating its intra-city rivals lately. Harvard has lost five straight to BC, BU and Northeastern since defeating the Terriers at Walter Brown Arena on Nov. 21, 2000.

“I think we’re very excited this year especially since we haven’t done very well over the last three years,” Capouch said. “It’s crucial for us to advance to the championship game. It would help our confidence tremendously.”

A key element for both teams tonight will be special teams play, as both Harvard and Northeastern rank among the top 20 nationally in power-play and penalty-killing efficiency.

“Special teams play a huge role in any game,” Capouch wrote. “We need to continue to stay disciplined and take advantage of any power play opportunities we get.”

The puck is set to drop at 5 p.m. tonight, with a grudge match between archrivals Boston College and Boston University to follow at approximately 8.