Crimson Heads North By Northwest

With time winding down on its regular season, the Harvard men’s hockey team boarded a bus yesterday afternoon and departed Bright Hockey Center for the cold confines of the North Country.

The Crimson (10-1-3-2, 8-9-1 ECAC) face-off against the Clarkson Golden Knights (11-14-5, 6-10-2) tonight and then head less than 10 miles down Route 11 into Canton, NY to skate at Appleton Arena against St. Lawrence (10-17-5, 6-10-2).

Harvard currently sits in seventh place in the 12-team ECAC, meaning that if the season ended today Harvard would host a playoff series on the ice at Bright in the first round. But the Crimson would miss the first round bye and home-ice throughout the postseason that goes along with a finish in the top four spots.

Despite its likely inability to secure a first-round bye, the contests this weekend will be crucial, according to junior defenseman Noah Welch.

“It’s a huge four points with us, not because of the distance [but] because of the teams we’re playing against,” he said.

The three teams are bunched together in the standings, with the North Country pair tied for eighth place, trailing Harvard by just three points.

And Harvard, St. Lawrence and Clarkson are not alone. Two points separate the league’s top team—Brown—from the second place squad—Colgate. And two points are all that separate No. 2 Colgate from the third, fourth and fifth place teams.

This comes as no surprise to St. Lawrence coach Joe Marsh, whose teams have struggled of late after several banner years from 1998-2001, often winning the ECAC and making noise in the NCAA Tournament.

“Every game is a dogfight in the ECAC,” he said. “The parity is so great in our league.”

That parity was evident, at least in part, during the Saints’ previous post-Thanksgiving trip to Cambridge. Coming on the heels of a strong 5-2 defeat of cross-town rival BU, the Crimson shutout St. Lawrence 3-0. But the next night against Clarkson, Harvard was itself shut out 3-0.

The Crimson and the Golden Knights met again in the consolation game of the inaugural Dunkin Donuts Coffee Pot holiday tournament.

This time Harvard matched Clarkson’s effort, putting 40 shots on Dustin Traylen, the Knights’ netminder, en route to a 3-3 tie.

Needless to say, the two teams are quite familiar with one another.

“Since we’ve played them…we know what style to expect,” captain Kenny Smith said.

“Clarkson’s a real aggressive team,” he continued. “We know they’re going to have a real aggressive forecheck, and come at us in their defensive zone.”

That aggressive forecheck is something Harvard will have to address; in the team’s first meeting, the Golden Knights outshot the Crimson and in both meetings the Knights have matched or exceeded Harvard’s physical play.

“Both times we’ve played Clarkson, they haven’t seen our best,” Welch said. “Maybe we’ll see it, though, on Friday.”

Harvard’s best effort is something that impresses Marsh; his teams, with a more open and offensive-minded attack, have had trouble matching up with the Crimson the last two years.

“Harvard is an extremely talented team…you have to respect what that team is capable of doing,” Marsh said. “Harvard can beat you in a lot of ways—the Yale game is a perfect example. Harvard has the capability to go out there and light you up.”

The team will need some of that New Haven spark in the North Country, where momentum and playoff positioning hang on the weekend’s outcome. As Welch said, it will need to show it’s best effort, for once, for the team to be successful.

“The book isn’t closed on this yet,” Mazzoleni said. “It’s not closed yet. We’re very, very capable of doing what we need to do.”

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