Harvard Hockey's Savior

This is not the first chapter in a new start for Harvard hockey. Overtimes willing, it won’t be the last chapter in this team’s season, either. This is simply another step in a master plan which is unfolding quite nicely for men’s hockey coach Mark Mazzoleni.

Harvard is back in the NCAA tournament and it appears it may be there for a while.

It has been eight years since the Crimson last advanced past the ECAC Championships in Lake Placid, N.Y. to the NCAA bracket. That was the final year of a run that saw Harvard qualify for the tournament in nine of 11 seasons, advance four times to the Frozen Four and win a national championship in 1989.

Every Crimson hockey fan hopes the future looks a lot like its past. This newest NCAA splash is not expected to be a one-shot deal, but part of a rekindled Harvard hockey dynasty.

“From ’84 to ’95, Harvard was always one of those teams that was in it,” Mazzoleni says. “If we can get this thing rolling again, we can be one of those teams that is in it every year, and when you’re knocking every year it shows.”

With eight freshmen, nine sophomores, three juniors and three seniors, this is a young team.

It also happens to be talented, with back-to-back deep recruiting classes around which the nucleus of the team is built.

Mazzoleni, who came to Harvard at the start of the 1999-2000 season, has been the catalyst for this rebirth.

Upon his arrival, he brought a new staff and new attitude to this team. That has made all the difference.

“We changed the whole culture of the hockey program,” Mazzoleni says. “We brought in winners...and we sold that to our kids.”

With a new coaching staff and a fresh direction, Mazzoleni was able to pitch his vision for the Crimson to potential recruits. They have wholeheartedly bought into the plan.

His recruiting efforts have already started to reap rewards. Freshman center Tom Cavanagh was the hero in the ECAC semifinal against Clarkson. A night later, it was sophomore winger Tyler Kolarik who potted the overtime winner to claim the ECAC title over Cornell.

Nevertheless, the seniors and juniors recruited prior to Mazzoleni’s tenure have been just as important a part of this team’s success.

“I made the decision in [my] first year to give the older kids every opportunity,” Mazzoleni says. “It is a mistake to give it to a freshman who hasn’t done squat to deserve it against a guy who’s worked for it.”

Mazzoleni’s approach stems from his days as a goaltender at Michigan State.

“I don’t differentiate between the freshmen-sophomores and the junior-seniors,” Mazzoleni says. “When I was a senior at Michigan State, we changed coaches. The new guy came in and it was his guys versus the old guys. And it left a sour taste in my mouth.”

He wants his players to stretch each other in practice and push one another for playing time in games. When there is someone waiting in the wings to take their job, Mazzoleni believes it brings out the best in players.

“You can be Vince Lombardi…but those kids have to understand that they have to be accountable to be good in practice and good in games,” he says. “And if they’re not, there has to be someone pushing them that we’ll give a shot.”

That’s part of the Mazzoleni mentality. The early returns seem to show it is working.

So well, in fact, that it is easy to forget that this team is still a work in progress. A number of schools, namely any of the eleven Harvard edged for the ECAC title, would die for a work in progress like Mazzoleni’s. Nevertheless, the team’s youth and inexperience have been evident at times during the season.

“Eighteen year-old freshmen and even many sophomores are not physically or mentally mature enough to really play at the NCAA level,” Mazzoleni says. “There are going to be some inconsistencies.”

The playoffs are short, however, which often lends itself to upsets by younger teams.

“It’s only been four games,” Mazzoleni says. “Part of it is just getting hot at the right time.”

No. 6 Maine, the Crimson’s first-round opponent in the NCAA tournament Saturday, has the experience, the talent and the history, but that doesn’t faze Mazzoleni.

“These [Harvard] kids are green enough they don’t have a clue,” Mazzoleni says. “They are just going to go out and play and attack them.”

Whether the Crimson wins this weekend and advances to the Frozen Four or not, these freshmen and sophomores will almost certainly be back to the NCAA tournament, and the growing pains Harvard has suffered these past two seasons may ultimately pay greater dividends.

“These young kids have played since day one,” Mazzoleni says. “They are getting more experience than most freshmen get and playing at critical points in the game and in the season. The freshmen and sophomores have gotten a lot of ice that next year’s kids simply won’t get because there are established players in those positions.”

Mazzoleni has always been building for the future. It just happens the future might have arrived a little ahead of schedule.

“In the first year, we wanted to play hard and disciplined,” Mazzoleni says. “In the second year, we wanted home-ice, Lake Placid and a winning record. This year, we wanted more of the same and to get to the championship game at Lake Placid.”

Harvard got to the championship game. It just decided to keep moving on.

“Don’t call me a prophet, because I’m not,” Mazzoleni says. “But if you get to the championship game, anything can happen. That’s how you get in the tournament.”

It is that quiet confidence that at times defines Mazzoleni. He knows the task before him and his players is difficult. He also knows they are the underdogs.

For any Crimson fan dreaming of a trip to Minnesota, the past may be the best hope for the future.

“When I went to [my first head coaching job at the University of Wisconsin-] Stevens Point, they’d never had a winning record,” Mazzoleni says. “In our third year, we were in the NCAA tournament, and in our fourth, fifth and sixth years, we won national championships.”

Mazzoleni’s history and Harvard history are convering quite nicely. If things continue to go the Crimson’s way, there will be a new chapter to write in Harvard hockey lore.