Daigneau’s Solid Play Sparks Goaltending Controversy

BOSTON—Two months ago, the thought wouldn’t have even crossed Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni’s mind, let alone have escaped from his lips. But as he answered questions following the Crimson’s lackluster 4-1 loss to No. 2 Boston College on Monday evening, it was clear that much has changed since then.

“[Giving sophomore John Daigneau more time in goal] is something we have to look at,” Mazzoleni said. “I mean, we’re at a point in our season that if we’re going to turn this thing, we need consistency in all parts of our game. And that’s definitely something we’re going to need to discuss as a coaching staff going into Yale.”

After Wednesday’s practice, Mazzoleni confirmed that Daigneau, and not junior Dov Grumet-Morris, will get the start in net for Harvard in New Haven tonight.

Daigneau has started just three games this season due to a long layoff following a 4-2 home loss against Princeton Nov. 14. Immediately after that outing, Grumet-Morris caught fire, allowing three goals or fewer in his next eight games, highlighted by 35 saves in a 3-2 loss at BC and a one-goal performance at Cornell. But since then, Grumet-Morris has swung to the opposite end of the spectrum, allowing three goals or more in five of seven, including outings against Cornell and St. Cloud State in which he allowed five.

The inconsistency culminated Monday, when Grumet-Morris suffered mightily under an intense attack. After allowing three goals in 23:01, Mazzoleni was forced to lift him from a game for the first time since his freshman season.

There was little that Grumet-Morris could have done to prevent junior teammate Tom Cavanagh from deflecting home a centering pass off the stick of Patrick Eaves for BC’s first goal, but it was the netminder’s listless attempt to clear the puck from behind the net that set up the bad break.

Skating behind the goal to handle the puck, Grumet-Morris attempted to scoot the pass along the boards left of the net. But the pass was intercepted by Eaves, setting up the score at 4:25 of the first.

Exactly seven minutes later, Grumet-Morris lost sight of a puck sent soaring over the net off Ned Havern’s stick, only to find it in his own net moments later, following a ricochet off the glass and then the back of his own left heel.

“At times you have confidence, but when something like that happens you really have an uphill battle,” Mazzoleni said. “I mean, they were, as I said, the first one we shot the puck right in our own net, the next one hits the glass, comes back hits your goalie and falls in and you’re down two nothing.”

But neither the second consecutive soft goal allowed nor Mazzoleni’s challenge to his team during the first intermission sufficed in rousing Grumet-Morris from his slumber.

Just 3:01 into the second, Justin Dziama received a pass from Peter Harrold behind the Crimson defense. Skating into the Harvard zone unopposed, Dziama ripped a slapshot on net from just inside the blue line, hitting Grumet-Morris square in the chest. But he was unable to control the rebound, allowing the puck to squirt free and trickle back into the goal. It was the third tally he allowed on 11 shots.

“I just thought at that point it wasn’t a good goal,” Mazzoleni said. “I mean we had talked about some things in between periods to try to put some energy into our guys, we come out, it’s a shot from beyond the top of the circle, [he] doesn’t control the rebound and they shove it in. We needed a spark at that time and I thought John Daigneau came in and did an exceptional job.”

Though the defense in front of him struggled to curtail speedy BC’s odd-man breakouts off turnovers in the neutral zone, Daigneau slammed the door shut on the Eagles for the remainder of the second period and well into the third until BC tacked on an insurance goal courtesy of a pair of Crimson mistakes.

Already down a man with senior defenseman Dave McCulloch in the box for cross-checking, Harvard allowed Tony Voce and Stephen Gionta to break on net with just sophomore defenseman Peter Hafner back to defend. Gionta carried the puck into the Crimson zone and cut inside, turning Hafner around, before dishing to Voce who neatly tucked his backhand shot just past Daigneau’s outstretched arm in the top right corner.

It was the only defensive lapse that Daigneau couldn’t cover.

Despite facing several 2-on-1 and 3-on-2 situations that yielded open looks for BC, Daigneau consistently slid over to shut the window of opportunity. Though he was on occasion sent sprawling, his strong initial positioning relative to the oncoming threat and much-improved footwork left the Eagles with little chance of finding the back of the net, as he turned away 18 shots.

Just moments into the third period, BC scoring leader Ryan Shannon slipped past a pair of Harvard defenders and into the center of the ice, just in front of the goal mouth before sending a shot screaming to Daigneau’s left. But Daigneau—as he did all evening long—slid quickly to his right and sent the shot scooting up harmlessly in the corner.

“Johnny did a tremendous job,” said captain Kenny Smith. “He stopped all the pucks he should’ve and probably some he shouldn’t have even stopped. He kept us in the game and it might’ve been a little different score if he hadn’t played so well.”

—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.