Penalty Woes Hurt M. Hockey

HAMILTON, N.Y.—There are good penalties, and then there are bad ones. And with that inescapable whistle sounding throughout collegiate hockey rinks all over the country this year, the difference between the good and the bad has become even more important.

“I think there are certain situations where as a coach and as a team, you understand why we need to take a penalty,” said Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91, “whether it’s to prevent a scoring chance or when they’re putting pressure on you and it looks like you need to stop it somehow, and sometimes it takes a penalty to do so.”

But then there are the unnecessary whistles—the late hits, the obstructions away from the play, the tempers that flare in heated rivalries such as this weekend’s.

Going into Cornell’s Lynah Rink, the Crimson probably didn’t expect to draw the whistle more often than the Big Red, though that’s precisely what happened, 7-5.

After all, Cornell has historically been the bigger, slower, clutch-and-grab-styled hockey squad, and this year’s Harvard lineup features plenty of small, speedy forwards as well as skaters both large and nimble.

Crimson captain Noah Welch made two trips to the sin bin on Friday, one of which gave the Big Red an early two-man advantage. Welch has collected nine penalties in the first three games of the season—his closest teammates have collected just two.

Freshman Dave Watters, seemingly affected by the intensity of Lynah Rink, also amassed two penalties—the first for hitting from behind, and the second for roughing with just nine seconds remaining in the third period.

Harvard had pulled goaltender Dov Grumet-Morris for one final push, but Watters’ penalty and Cornell’s subsequent power play led to the netminder’s return for the final nine seconds of the game.

Against Colgate, the Crimson was only penalized four times—three of those, though, were Welch’s.

The Crimson is averaging 16 minutes in the penalty box per game—almost a full period played beneath full strength—but that doesn’t even touch ECACHL penalty leader Clarkson, which averages 29.5 minutes per game in the slammer. In fact, Harvard sits in a ninth-place tie in the 12-team league.

But, said Donato, “I think we took a few that we can’t take on the road if we want to be successful.”

BROKEN WING

Missing from the Harvard men’s hockey team’s Colgate and Cornell games this weekend was winger Charlie Johnson. The junior, who had thus far occupied a spot on the Crimson’s top line, suffered an undisclosed injury in his team’s Oct. 30 exhibition against the U.S. Under-18 team.

“Absolutely, we miss Charlie,” Donato said. “Charlie’s a very key offensive guy for us, and he’s got experience, and he does a lot of things that we lack.”

The Crimson mustered a combined 39 shots on goal in the two games, while Cornell took 34 and Colgate 40. The power play was similarly lackluster, going 0-for-5 in both games.

Johnson, who registered 20 points his rookie year and 14 last season—despite missing significant time to injury—was expected to lead a large part of Harvard’s offensive charge this season.

“We miss him,” Donato said, “but other teams have injuries, other teams have guys that go down, and we can’t be about excuses. We’ve got to be about finding solutions.”

Johnson is currently listed as day-to-day.

REDRAWING THE LINES

So early in the season, it is routine for a coach to shuffle the lines until combinations start to jell. But Johnson’s absence was certainly not one Donato anticipated—or wanted to plan around.

The show must go on, though, and freshman Mike Taylor got both of the weekend’s start in Johnson’s stead.

And though he didn’t start last weekend against Brown, Watters played both of this weekend’s contests after notching four points in the U.S. Under-18 exhibition.

The 6’4 Watters and his classmate, Jon Pelle, skated on senior Brendan Bernakevitch’s second line, and the latter two assisted on Harvard’s lone goal of the weekend—2:05 into the second period against the Raiders.

Also filling in holes throughout the weekend were sophomore Steve Mandes, freshman Paul Dufault and senior Andrew Lederman, all forwards.

The Crimson’s fourth line of junior Dan Murphy, freshman Tyler Magura and senior Rob Flynn—which provided particularly energetic play on Saturday—did not change, nor did Harvard’s three defensive pairings.

“We’re trying to get a little bit of life,” Donato said of the changes, “trying to find an offensive spark.”

—Staff writer Rebecca A. Seesel can be reached at seesel@fas.harvard.edu.