Four-Game Losing Streak Against Big Red Looms for M. Hockey

0-4 and 4-0. As the Harvard men’s hockey team (7-8-2, 5-6-1 ECAC) enters its annual homestand against Cornell and Colgate, the scenario is a bit polar.

While the Crimson has struggled against the Big Red and lost the last four games the squads have played, Harvard has owned the Raiders, sweeping the teams’ past four matchups.

Unlike Harvard’s road trip to New York only a month ago, this weekend’s lineup presents Cornell (6-2-5, 4-0-2 ECAC) first—tonight—with Colgate (8-7-3, 3-3-0 ECAC) following tomorrow night. This means that, finally, the Crimson can focus on what has become its paramount hockey adversary in the Big Red instead of playing off the obvious rivalry with claims of “one game at a time” and “we’re not looking too far ahead.”

“Our game plan is going to be revolving around the biggest game to date this year,” said junior goaltender Dov Grumet-Morris. “They’re going to come out from the beginning and attack us, work out of the corners and try and get

their offensive game going.”

Despite the recent graduation of seven players (including four of the five skaters on the Big Red’s top power play unit) and the departure of dominant netminder Dave LeNeveu to the Phoenix Coyotes, Cornell has stayed strong.

Not only is the Big Red offense averaging 3.31 goals per game, the defense—complete with freshman goalie David McKee—has remained typically stingy and allowed just 2.08 goals per game.

“New team, different team,” acknowledged Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni, “but they’re still very, very good defensively.”

The Crimson’s defense, which has let in an average of 2.59 goals per contest, has been somewhat beleaguered of late. But Mazzoleni is loathe to blame his team’s recent inadequacies on the growing disabled list.

“Everyone has injuries,” he said. “It’s a part of a contact sport….Having injuries has no impact on why we were flat [in recent contests].”

Mazzoleni was referring to the Crimson’s series last weekend in which, after a hard-fought 3-2 win over Union, Harvard crumbled and lost 4-1 to RPI, never even glimpsing a chance at a win.

The Crimson must do a better job staying vigilant this weekend. Though Cornell is the conspicuous attraction, Colgate remains a strong program which has lost only one of its last five contests.

Harvard has enjoyed continued success over the Raiders in recent years, outscoring them by 22 goals in the last four meetings, and Colgate coach

Stan Moore is well aware of his opponent’s domination.

“[After] the last four games [against the Crimson], coming up 0-4 for a grand total of 26 goals scored and [four] against,” Moore said, “if I found that any of my players exhibited an overabundance of confidence, I would

think they needed to maybe reassess the situation.”

He also called Harvard a team with “a level of skill…which I believe is profound.”

Even with such profound skill, the Crimson’s power play has barely eked out a 14.3 percent conversion rate this season.

“[A power play] is a collection of very hard work by five individuals coupled with their ability,” said Moore in explanation. “I would think that Harvard overall has an unbeatable power play.

“It’s the subtleties of how hard people work and how hard they work together that I try to impress upon my team.”

Moore’s Raiders are averaging 17.2 percent with the man advantage, but the team has capitalized on one of every four chances in the last month.

Mazzoleni’s take on the Crimson’s play is somewhat different.

“Our kids are trying,” he said. “We’ve tried. We’ve had games where we outshoot people and we don’t finish, or we outshoot and maybe we let in a soft goal or two, or we don’t get it done on specialty teams, but it hasn’t

been because we’ve come out and slacked.”

Harvard’s power play is currently 10th in the league (10-for-70, 14.3 percent). Last season, it led the ECAC with a 23.7 percent conversion rate (37-for-156).

The missing ingredient this year is twofold: forwards Dominic Moore and Brett Nowak, both ’03, were integral pieces in last year’s man advantage.

With the two forwards stacked on the right side of the rink and drawing the opposition, current senior forward Tim Pettit was left open across the ice, and his slapshot proved lethal.

“[Moore and Nowak] had the individual ability to generate goals by themselves without the team approach in it,” Mazzoleni said. “We weren’t a throw-it-at-the-net-from-all-angles [team]… other guys had secondary roles and responsibilities, and now our approach has to be a collective team [effort] to get to the net.”

Junior Noah Welch, who quarterbacks the Crimson’s top power play unit, agrees, adding, “We’ve got to kind of use all our weapons and not just stack one side of the ice.”

The blueliner also promised a new look for his power play unit today, the next in a chain of different formations the Crimson has tried thus far ranging from last year’s umbrella to a 2-3 and then back to the umbrella

again.

“Anytime you play Cornell, it’s a big game just because of the rivalry there,” said Welch, “but it’s also a big game for our team and our season. We really want to take this one, and we’re looking at it as a great opportunity...Hopefully this will be the game that puts us over the edge.”