Icers Ready for ECAC Roadtrip

Fresh off a 6-2 romp over Dartmouth last Saturday, the Harvard men’s hockey team will look to sustain its momentum in a pair of tough ECAC road games this weekend.

The Crimson hopes to display the same intensity it had late in the Big Green game, a focus that was lacking in a 4-3 exhibition loss to McGill a week earlier.

“We just didn’t play hard [against McGill], and I think that’s why they beat us,” said junior defenseman Dylan Reese. “We came out to play against Dartmouth, especially in the third period.”

But even the improved effort isn’t enough for Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91, who still sees plenty of room for progress.

“We gave up a goal in the first minute of the first two periods [against the Big Green], we gave up too many out-numbered rushes, and we spent too much time in our own zone in the first half of the game,” Donato said.

The Crimson’s development in those areas will be tested tonight, when the team faces ECAC-newcomer Quinnipiac. The Bobcats, who fill the void left by Vermont’s departure, have scheduled the game in the Hartford Civic Center in anticipation of a large crowd. The arena has a concert capacity of 16,500, and tonight’s contest could easily shatter the old ECAC record of 7,460 fans. Coincidentally, Harvard had a hand in that mark as well: on Feb. 3, 1979, the Crimson faced Yale in the New Haven Coliseum for a game that set the current mark.

“This is a good team,” Donato said. “It’s going to be an emotional game, a big game for them, and we’d prefer that they save their first win celebration in the ECAC for another night.”

It won’t be easy, though. The Bobcats have won six straight entering tonight’s contest, and they are led by junior Reid Cashman, a Hobey Baker finalist who notched 45 points from the blue line last year.

After the Quinnipiac game, Harvard heads south for New Jersey, where it will face Princeton tomorrow night. The Tigers have totaled just 16 wins in their last three seasons, but they swept the Crimson two years ago.

“Princeton, over the last few years, has given us a lot of trouble,” Donato said. “They’re very well coached, and offensively they have some guys that had great numbers last year, so they pose a different set of challenges.”

Those challenges are rooted in the Tigers’ offense, which second-year coach Guy Gadowsky has improved during his tenure. In last year’s game at the Bright Center, Princeton scored six goals.

“They have a really explosive offense,” Reese said. “We look for more of a run-and-gun system against them. It’s a matter of being able to play solid defense and take advantage of mistakes they make.”

The Princeton attack will test the two freshman blueliners on the ice for Harvard, but last Saturday’s game against Dartmouth was a good initial experience. Jack Christian recorded his first assist, and fellow newcomer Brian McCafferty fared well during significant ice time.

“I think in general, they were a lot like the rest of our team in the fact that I thought as the game wore on, they got better and better,” Donato said. “But for the first game, I thought both of them played very well.”

The situation behind those young defensemen will also be worth watching. While senior goaltender John Daigneau recorded 19 saves in the win over the Big Green, Donato seems prepared to follow through on his initial plan of rotating Daigneau with junior Justin Tobe.

“We’re going to kind of wait and see,” Donato said. “It’s probably likely that both of them will see some games early on.”

“Justin will get a chance very soon to get equal opportunity,” he added.

But, no matter who’s in net, the Crimson has a clear goal for the weekend.

“We want to get out of there with four points,” Reese said. “Anything less would be disappointing for us.”