Former Assistant Sees Hope For M. Hockey

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass.—Boston College assistant coach Ron Rolston looked across the ice last night at Conte Forum and saw a number of familiar faces. Sitting along the opposing team’s bench were a number of the players that Rolston recruited and developed during his tenure as an assistant coach for the Crimson.

Rolston has been away from Cambridge for almost two years now, having departed after Harvard’s surprise win in the 2002 ECAC Tournament and its NCAA tournament berth to take an assistant coach’s position with the Eagles. And despite having played against his former team once before, the Harvard-BC contests are still a little more important than other games.

“It’s tough on the other side of the ice seeing a lot of guys who were there when you were coaching,” he said.

Most of the current juniors and seniors were recruited by Rolston, and all played for him during the 2001-2002 season. Among the players that Rolston helped recruit for the Crimson are junior all-American Noah Welch, assistant captain Tyler Kolarik, and junior netminder Dov Grumet-Morris. And Rolston has fond memories of his time in Cambridge, and the players he worked with.

“It’s good to see those guys out there,” he said.

Rolston was particularly impressed with the goaltending of Grumet-Morris and the defensive play of Welch.

“We tried to keep track of [Welch’s] shifts,” Rolston said. “It seemed like he was out there every other shift, and some of those shifts were a minute and a half long.”

Rolston went on to say that if Welch continues to develop, he expects to see him in the NHL some day soon. And he was similarly optimistic about Harvard’s own chances for improvement, despite the team’s poor start.

“They’re a good hockey team,” he said. “They’ll learn a lot from their lessons. They’ve had a real tough schedule early on, and I think they’re going to have a good second half.”

M*A*S*H

After dressing his only 20 healthy players with varsity experience Saturday night at Cornell, Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni again had his hand forced by injuries last night.

In addition to senior Kenny Turano, who is out for at least two more months after ankle surgery, defensemen Dylan Reese (back) and Dave McCulloch (ankle) were again out of the lineup—Reese for the fifth straight game and McCulloch for the fourth. (Reese could return as soon as Harvard’s next game, on Saturday against Massachusetts.)

But instead of dressing senior forward Blair Barlow as a defenseman—as he did in both games last weekend —Mazzoleni opted to skate five backliners and 13 forwards (including Barlow).

He nearly had to play four defensemen, but junior Ryan Lannon played despite a deep cut on his elbow that caused some to advise him not to dress.

“He looked at our defensive corps and saw that we’d only have four,” Mazzoleni said, “so he sucked it up and played.”

The one bit of good news from the trainer’s room: standout freshman Steve Mandes, who missed the Cornell game after taking a hit from behind at Colgate, was back in the lineup. The right wing skated alongside Kolarik and freshman Kevin Du on the second line.

“I thought he was outstanding,” Mazzoleni said of Mandes, who attempted two shots and saw time on the penalty kill. “The kid didn’t do anything since Friday, and he went out there and played today.

Meanwhile, none of the team’s forward lines had the same personnel that they did over the weekend. Notable changes included senior Tim Pettit returning to the top line, Du centering the second line, and Barlow moving into the fourth-line pivot.

Junior Andrew Lederman was the odd man out, and played sparingly at forward.

Power Problems Solved?

After going 2-for-19 on the power play in its last three games—7-for-41 for the season—the Crimson switched its power play in practice this week, from an umbrella with junior Tom Cavanagh, Welch, and Pettit across the top, to a set with Welch and Pettit on either end of the blue line and three men across the bottom.

The result was a 1-for-3 performance against the Eagles, including a first period one-timer by junior Brendan Bernakevitch—a new addition to the unit—on a pristine cross-ice feed from Pettit. The goal gave Harvard a 2-1 lead, which it held until a BC power-play marker of its own tied the game nine minutes later.

“We had the puck moving around a lot more in the zone, and we were hitting seam passes,” said Bernakevitch, who had a goal and an assist last night. “We had good shots in front of the net.

“It was tough to get used to a change in systems like that. But once we get used to it, it’s definitely going to work out for us.”

Harvard began the season with the same power play formation it used last season, when it converted 37 of 156 chances (23.7 percent). But without key cogs Dominic Moore ’03 and Brett Nowak ’03, Pettit and Welch—zero power-play goals between them—struggled to generate shots on net from the points.

But Mazzoleni liked the puck movement he saw during the Crimson’s power play chances against the Eagles, even though they only added up to three shots on goal.

“It’s very much a step in the right direction for us, because we haven’t been [putting the puck on net],” he said. “Again, though, you look at the outcome, and they were 2-for-6 and we were 1-for-3.”

Harvard is 1-4-1 when scoring fewer power-play goals than its opponents, compared to a 3-1-0 mark when it has scores more on the man advantage.

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

—Staff writer Jon Paul Morosi can be reached at morosi@fas.harvard.edu.