Re-Armed Defense Faces ECAC’s Best Offense

The Harvard men’s hockey team is 0-2-0 since the exam break, but the Crimson hopes to halt that trend—while continuing an older streak—at Yale tonight.

The game will be nationally televised as the college hockey Game of the Week on College Sports Television (CSTV). The puck drops at The Whale (Ingalls Rink) at 8 p.m.

A win tonight could be what the Crimson (8-11-2, 6-8-1 ECAC) needs to reenergize itself for the final, frenzied month of ECAC play. Harvard stands eighth in a parity-ridden pack, and if it finishes any lower, it will have to play on the road for the duration of the playoffs.

“Anything could happen right now for a team that goes on a streak,” said Crimson coach Mark Mazzoleni. “I think anyone, right now, has a possibility of positioning themselves well for the playoffs.”

Harvard has won only four times in its last 14 games but another sort of history seems to be on its side against the Bulldogs (11-10-0, 9-5-0). The Crimson owns a three-game win streak against its rival, including a 4-1 win in November at Bright Hockey Center. Harvard won both of last season’s contests by a minimum of three goals.

“We can’t take them lightly because of their record,” said Yale senior Ryan Steeves. “They have such dynamic players, they can tear you apart.”

The Crimson’s recent success in the rivalry has come despite the Bulldogs’ high-powered offense. Harvard and Yale tied for the best offense in the ECAC last season (4.27 goals per game), and the Elis lead the league again this year at 3.50, even after the departure of ECAC Co-Player of the Year Chris Higgins.

Without Higgins (41 points last year), a trio of sophomore forwards—Joe Zappala (see ON HOCKEY), Christian Jensen, and Jeff Hristovoski—have stepped to the fore, combining for 52 points in league play.

“Losing your leading scorer isn’t something any team wants to go through,” Zappala said. “We knew we all had to step up our game a little more.”

But the biggest reason for the Bulldogs’ current six-game winning streak—and seven-game ECAC win streak—has been improved goaltending. The same team that allowed more than six goals five times in its first seven games has lately received steady—if not spectacular—play between the pipes from Josh Gartner, who had 80 saves in a two-game sweep in the North Country last weekend.

“At the beginning of the season, goaltending was a big question for us,” Steeves said. “But Josh has been playing amazing for us lately.”

Meanwhile, Harvard’s defensive corps appears to be—at long last—returning to full strength. Senior David McCulloch returned to the lineup against Brown last Saturday after missing 13 games with a high ankle sprain and has looked solid on his skates. And tonight, Harvard expects to have freshman Dylan Reese back in the lineup after sitting out 15 games with lower back problems.

After a full practice Wednesday afternoon, Mazzoleni mentioned Reese’s return to the lineup, hoping that the promising offensive defenseman can infuse some life into a stagnant attack that has left the Crimson next-to-last in the ECAC in goals per game (2.20).

Mazzoleni promised to run McCulloch and Reese on regular shifts and said he would consider their role on special teams. He cautioned against expecting too much out of Reese (and even McCulloch), too soon. “You’ve got to watch their ice time and see how they’re doing,” he said. “If they’re struggling a little more, you don’t put them out every time.”

Before his injury, Reese was drawing time on the power play unit and McCulloch has long been “a very good penalty killer,” according to Mazzoleni.

The Crimson’s penalty kill has been on the upswing since before McCulloch returned. Currently in the middle of the ECAC at 80.5 percent, the last three games have seen dramatic improvement. Junior goaltender Dov Grumet-Morris said the penalty kill did an “excellent job” in Monday’s lost to Boston College.

“We’ve tweaked the penalty kill somewhat…allowing players [to have] a greater responsibility for an area,” Grumet-Morris said.

In its last three games—all against nationally ranked teams (BC, Brown, Colgate)—Harvard has killed off 18 of 20 power plays. The Crimson will need to continue that in order to have success tonight at The Whale, a building that—despite Harvard’s recent success—has been unkind to Crimson teams in the past. Harvard is 4-16-6 at Yale since the 1977-78 season, including 2-6-1 in its last nine trips.

The Bulldogs’ home-ice advantage has been especially strong this season. They have a 6-2-0 record at Ingalls, and tonight is sure to be a sellout.

“The Yale Whale is great to play in every week,” Steeves said, “but there’s something special about it for the Harvard game.”

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

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