ON HOCKEY: Harvard Takes Aim at Dartmouth, ECAC Title

ALBANY, N.Y.—Without Magic, Bird wouldn’t be Bird. Without Woody, Bo wouldn’t be Bo. Without the Yankees, the Sox wouldn’t be the Sox.

History remembers rivals together. Players and teams may get lost in the collective consciousness of sport, but if your name clings to another like statically-charged boxers from the dryer, then congratulations: You’re immortal.

That’s what has made the Harvard-Cornell hockey hate-fest so much fun. The animosity was always there for them—the Big Red awards the “Crimson Cup” annually to the player with the best performance against Harvard—but it’s grown on our side too.

Big games will do that to a rivalry. The teams have met in the ECAC playoffs for four straight years, including the last two championship games, both overtime epics.

But there will be no similar renewal this weekend. Cornell was stunned by Clarkson in the quarterfinals, only the third and fourth playoff losses in Lynah Rink history.

From Harvard’s perspective, there are two ways to look at the Big Red’s Big Absence.

First, there’s the disappointment that there will be no chance at redemption after last season’s ECAC title game, when a would-be championship evaporated in the final minute.

“I was kind of hoping they’d make it, that we’d maybe get some revenge for last year,” admitted Harvard defenseman Noah Welch.

Senior Tim Pettit said: “There definitely was an excitement that we’d play them in a third championship game.”

But on the other hand, as Welch and Pettit also acknowledged, no Cornell in Albany means…well…no Cornell in Albany.

“We’re not going to complain too much,” Pettit said. “They’re a great team.”

Asked for his thoughts on a Big-Red-less bracket, Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni provided a standard coach response: “I don’t care…We’re there, and we have to worry about Dartmouth.”

Do you mean to say you won’t buy a ‘Wishing You Were Here’ card at the Crowne Plaza gift shop for Cornell coach Mike Schafer?

“Think he’d send me one?” Mazzoleni responded with a laugh.

Point taken. This is a rivalry we’re talking about. While there is plenty of respect between the two programs, there isn’t much love. And that’s the way we like it.

Only now, that’s leaving Crimson fans without a group of people to call The Bad Guys. The other three teams probably feel the same way.

Which leads us to this question: Who’s supposed to win this thing, anyway?

Mazzoleni thinks the “favorite” label belongs to Colgate, the top seed and regular season champion. “They should be,” he said. “They’ve proven it over the long haul.”

Harvard, though, seems to have finally caught up with its lofty preseason expectations. It’s safe to say a Crimson victory would not be surprising, never mind its ho-hum 16-14-3 record.

“Harvard’s the favorite, no question,” said Brown assistant coach Danny Brooks, whose team was swept by the Crimson last weekend. “They’re the best team, talent-wise.”

Only in the ECAC would that be said of a No. 6 seed.

ICE FAIR TO THE MIDLER

Good news. Bette Midler’s show was canceled Wednesday night.

No need to fire off an angry e-mail, Bette fans. That view comes from a strictly hockey perspective.

You see, she was all set to play at Pepsi Arena this week, until Mother Nature dumped a foot of snow on the Capital Region.

The Bette Set weighs upwards of 113,000 pounds—no problem for the Pepsi rafters under normal conditions—but the snow added another 76,000 pounds to the roof. That would have resulted in an excessive payload. So no Bette.

And while that’s not such a great thing for the arena’s ledger, ECAC players and coaches will reap the benefits of an ice surface that won’t be dealing with the after effects of a warm night under stage lights.

“Without her concert going on, the ice will probably be as good as it conceivably could be,” Mazzoleni said.

Last year, many observers agreed that the Pepsi ice was at least a little choppy, though Pepsi Arena general manager Bob Belber said he heard “very favorable comments” on the playing surface.

If ice conditions prove to be less-than-ideal again this weekend, Brooks expects Harvard will not feel ill effects.

“If anything, I think that would favor Harvard,” he said. “If Harvard stays in their trap, I’d give the advantage to [Harvard power forwards Dennis] Packard, [Rob] Fried and [Rob] Flynn. Those guys will be more effective.”

MATCHMAKERS

You know you’re talking playoff hockey when terms like match lines and last change are tossed about.

And, in the spirit of midterms, here they are in a sentence: Harvard hopes to match lines to combat Dartmouth’s top line of Hugh Jessiman, Mike Ouellette and Lee Stempniak, even though, as the lower seed, it doesn’t have the last change.

When Mazzoleni had the benefit of the last change in the final game of the regular season, he countered the J-O-S line with his own sizeable unit of Dennis Packard, Brendan Bernakevitch and Ryan Maki, along with defensive-minded blueliners Peter Hafner and Ryan Lannon.

The result was a 0-0-0—zero output for the Big Green’s Big Guys, which has become somewhat of a custom against Harvard. In the four games Jessiman, Ouellette and Stempniak have skated together against the Crimson, they have combined for only one even-strength goal.

“We matched up pretty well against them in the game, and part of that was we played them a little more physical,” Lannon said. “They’re bigger guys, but I don’t think that’s particularly their style, so we were able to take away their space, and they weren’t able to do much.

“It wasn’t just what myself and Pete did as the defensemen, but all the forwards coming back and locking out their guys. It made everything a little bit easier on us.”

Mazzoleni doesn’t think Dartmouth’s ability to make the last change will make a big difference. “Well, you’ve got your captain [Kenny Smith] and Noah Welch as your next defensive partners, so by sheer odds, you’ll get one of those two sets out against them,” he said. “But who knows. He [Dartmouth coach Bob Gaudet] may go a different avenue and split them. Traditionally against us, he’s stacked that line, but at times against other teams, he’s split them.”

WORDS BETTER THAN AWARDS

Never mind the fact that Welch received only honorable mention at the ECAC awards banquet last night. Consider these words from Brooks:

“Noah Welch is the best defenseman in the league, bar none, without a doubt. Use that as a direct quote…He’s big, he’s tough, he’s mean. I don’t want to face Noah Welch…I mean, he does it all. He passes the puck. He has an absolute intercontinental ballistic missile for a shot. He has tremendous on-ice vision. His defensive play is outstanding.

“We’re going to pay money to watch him play someday. Well, maybe not us because Noah’s going to give us tickets. But other people are going to pay to watch him play,” he said.

Welch has been—above all things—consistent since Mazzoleni sat him in the final game of the regular season. More and more, Welch is realizing he’s at his best when he keeps his game simple.

“I put a lot of weight on my shoulders this season, and I think I started out trying to do too much,” Welch said. “I’m being more successful now because I’m keeping my game simple.

“My job is to prevent the other team from scoring, not put up two goals and two assists a game. Before, I was trying to prevent the other team from scoring and put up the big numbers, and sometimes your defense suffers from that. But coming down the stretch, I’ve just been focusing on playing defense.”

Mazzoleni’s assessment: “Noah’s been excellent. Noah puts a lot of pressure on himself to really be a difference-maker. You’ve got to respect him for that. What Noah’s doing now is playing a very complete game on both sides of the ice.”

BRIEFLY

For Harvard students who couldn’t make it to Albany this weekend, the H-Club has arranged for live showings of games on the big screen in the Science Center. The schedule includes the men’s semifinal at 7:45 p.m. tonight (lecture hall A) and, if applicable, the men’s final at 8 p.m. tomorrow (lecture hall A) and women’s final at noon Sunday (lecture hall C).

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