No Advantage on Crimson Power Play

It may seem a bit critical to cite a power-play unit that has converted three times in its last three games as the primary culprit in the Harvard’s 3-0 loss to Clarkson, but Harvard’s inability to capitalize on the man advantage was—along with the stellar play of Golden Knights’ netminder Dustin Traylen—the primary reason that the Crimson had only a two-point weekend.

Despite improvements—and it’s hard not to move up when you’ve ranked second to last in the ECAC for much of the season—during recent games against Boston University and St. Lawrence, the Harvard power play struggled mightily against Clarkson, a team with a below-average penalty killing unit.

“I don’t know how many power plays they had, but I really thought our penalty kill did a great job,” Clarkson coach George Roll said.

Indeed his team did, limiting the Crimson to no goals on nine shots in six chances with the man up. The Golden Knights, who under former head coach Mark Morris annually led the ECAC in penalty minutes per game, have not totally renounced their overly physical ways under Roll. They are averaging almost 24 minutes in the box per contest.

In the past, Harvard has struggled to refrain from assuming the Knights’ physical brand of hockey and spending equal time with them in the box. Saturday night’s struggle, though, was about Harvard failing to convert on the number of opportunities with which it was presented.

The first—and biggest—opportunity came at 4:32 of the first, when Harvard had 1:32 of a five-on-three advantage. That situation amounted to nothing, and power plays at the start and end of the second period, and again midway through the third did not produce results, either.

“It’s very difficult to score when you don’t capitalize on the power play,” Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni said. “We had a five-on-three situation in the first period. We had numerous opportunities thereafter, and we didn’t finish.”

Part of Harvard’s inability to score was a result of a simple but strong Clarkson penalty kill. The Golden Knights were able to forecheck aggressively when the Crimson tried to enter the zone, and they were quick to clear the puck whenever it came near their sticks, enabling line changes and fresh legs to match up against the quicker Harvard forwards.

“[Clarkson] played really aggressive,” Crimson captain Kenny Smith said. “They were all over us in all three zones.”

But aggressive defenders weren’t the whole story behind Harvard’s struggles on the power play.

“I thought we missed the net an awful lot,” Mazzoleni said. “We had chances, but we did not even hit the net on it.”

Traylen produced 31 saves on the evening, but he was assisted by the number of shots that rang out from the perimeter, many of which missed the net entirely or were blocked by the defense. In total, the Crimson had 10 shots blocked by defenders over three periods and missed entirely with another 16 shots.

Traylen clearly saw those shots that were directed on target and weren’t knocked down by Golden Knight defenders and made a number of easy saves without a screen in front, something about which Mazzoleni expressed his frustration.

“We didn’t get a lot of traffic in front tonight,” he said. “That’s Dennis [Packard]’s job on that thing, is to jam up the net front…The key point is the midpoint, which is No. 5 [junior defenseman Noah Welch] and you’re trying to get the puck from [senior Tim] Pettit to him and one-time. Dennis’ responsibility is to take away the goaltender’s eyes.”

Packard, a 6’5 senior forward who is enjoying a strong start to the season with five goals and three assists so far, was a weekend addition to the first power-play unit, replacing sophomore Charlie Johnson in an effort—according to Mazzoleni—to screen opposing goaltenders more effectively.

After Saturday night’s struggles, it is possible Mazzoleni might continue to tinker with his first power-play unit. But he also thinks that his team needs to use reverse-motivation, psyching itself up to meet the challenge of teams that are psyched up to face the Crimson.

“When you are the team that was picked to win the league, you’re going to get everyone’s better effort each night,” Mazzoleni said. “You’re going to get everyone’s A game each time.”

That’s the type of effort Mazzoleni hopes to get out of his team—and his top power play—every game. The weekend’s games, though, stood something below a Gentleman’s B.

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