On Hockey: New Penalty Kill Source of Woes

Having completed five games and facing a long layoff before a pre-Thanksgiving clash against BU, the Harvard men’s hockey team has not yet hit its stride. For a team that was ranked in the top 10 nationally and was predicted to win the ECAC, the stumbles the Crimson has taken thus far against Brown and Princeton have raised concerns and questions about the team’s ability.

“Right now we’re an average team,” Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni said. “We’re 2-2-1—we’re an average team.”

Though there are many potential causes for the Crimson’s struggles thus far, including the better than expected play of Brown, the primary reasons behind Harvard’s early struggles seem to be a new penalty-killing system and a reduced scoring threat along the forward lines.

Just in Time

Assistant coach Gene Reilly took the place of departed coach Nate Leaman and has been in charge of implementing a new penalty-killing system. Reilly takes over a unit that was the third best in the ECAC a year ago, killing off nearly 85 percent of the opportunities against it.

This year’s unit has struggled, or it did through the season’s first three games. Right now Harvard’s penalty killers have finished off 22 of the 27 advantages against them, but before this weekend that tally stood at a far less impressive 12 of 17.

“I think the penalty kill is coming along very well,” said junior goaltender Dov Grumet-Morris. “We were very successful in the Yale game and in the Princeton game, as well.”

During those two games, the Crimson played well with a man in the box, stopping all 10 of the chances against it. Much of the credit, according to Reilly, goes to Grumet-Morris and sophomore goaltender John Daigneau.

“Your best penalty killer is your goaltender,” he said.

While that might be true, the fact that the other four men in Crimson jerseys have been getting quickly acclimated to Reilly’s approach is encouraging.

“You try to implement something [the players] might not be used to and then you’re away for five to 10 days [on recruiting trips], and the continuity is not there,” Reilly said.

“It’s not the same as being there and being hands on, handling the small details,” he continued.

But those details, which Grumet-Morris says is more about approach than positioning, appear to be progressing well.

“It’s a slightly different theory of how to play the penalty kill,” Grumet-Morris said. “It’s not necessarily different mechanics of where the players move, but rather a different theory of where to move the puck and when to jump.”

The true test of whether Harvard’s penalty kill has regained all of last year’s potency will come Nov. 25 when hockey fans can see if will contained the power play unit of nationally-ranked BU.

Two-Game Turnaround

On the opposite side of the coin from the Crimson’s difficulties killing off penalties has been the team’s “semi-struggling” offense. Semi-struggling because the team has averaged nearly three goals a game this season.

But it also has been shutout by Brown, and held to a pair of early scores by a weak Princeton team. The primary reason is the composition of the forward lines, which have taken three major hits since a year ago.

First off, the loss of Dominic Moore ’03 and Brett Nowak ’03 took Harvard’s first and third leading scorers off the roster. Second, the loss of hard-shooting senior Kenny Turano to a broken ankle took another veteran forward out of Harvard’s lineup.

And, as luck would have it, Moore, Nowak and fourth-liner Aaron Kim ’03 all played the same position—center. To start the season, then, the Crimson only had one player, junior forward Tom Cavanagh, with recent experience manning center ice at the college level.

Mazzoleni compensated by moving junior Brendan Bernakevitch and sophomore Charlie Johnson to center, and inserting freshman Kevin Du in the role of fourth-line spark plug previously held by Kim.

This weekend, though, Mazzoleni decided to re-arrange some of his combinations. He moved Johnson up to the second line, playing alongside Bernakevitch and senior Tyler Kolarik.

Du, along with sophomore Dan Murphy and fellow freshman Steve Mandes played on the third line. And junior Andrew Lederman was situated between seniors Rob Fried and Rob Flynn on the team’s fourth line.

And the new combinations seemed to work out, as the Crimson looked sharp and coordinated on Saturday, scoring four goals against Yale.

“I thought [Johnson, Bernakevitch, and Kolarik] played well,” Mazzoleni said. “We’re trying to find that element of continuity. I liked the Du-Mandes-Murphy line, and I thought Lederman and Fried and Flynn played their role to a T—they were a big, strong physical line.”

“Maybe we stacked two [lines], I don’t know,” he continued. “But I thought we had production from all four lines in the role that we’re asking them to do. You can be very productive by going out there and playing physical and creating a pace and energy for your team, by finishing your check and playing good defense, too. And I thought they did that very well.”

While the effect that a quality checking line can have does produce a tangible impact on the game, Mazzoleni’s decision to create, in essence if not in name, two checking lines is questionable. It concentrates Harvard’s offense too tightly, creating long minutes between shifts where the Crimson’s ability to mount an offensive attack is compromised.

“We have to bring a lunch-pail mentality to the rink,” Mazzoleni said. “And if we don’t play that, we’re very beatable. We are. And it showed against Brown and against Princeton—we got outcompeted by both teams. When we bring a lunch-pail mentality will be able to play with anyone, I don’t have any question about that. But if we don’t, we’re very beatable.”

Mazzoleni believes that players like Fried, Du and Flynn give him that lunch-pail mentality and that while they may not score too many goals, they will skate hard, fast and physical. But compared with last year, when Harvard skated three offensively-skilled lines, this year’s Crimson model is coming up a bit short.

It’s a calculated risk, choosing to have two lines packed with offensively gifted players and two lines filled with younger players or fast and physical veterans that will play good defense and give the team an energy boost.

Like the team’s penalty kill, Harvard’s concentrated forward lines will be tested against BU. And with star Terrier netminder Sean Fields covering the crease, fans should have a good idea whether Mazzoleni’s emphasis on the importance of lunch-pail mentality brings big rewards or (temporary) ruin.

—Staff writer Timothy M. McDonald can be reached at tmcdonal@fas.harvard.edu.