SPORTS BRIEF: Junior Reese to replace Hafner, don Captain’s ‘C’ in 2006-07 for Harvard hockey

Dylan Reese was named the 11th captain of Harvard hockey at the team’s annual end-of-season banquet at the Harvard Club Saturday. The junior from Pittsburgh is the fourth consecutive defenseman to earn the ‘C,’ and he takes the reins from 2005-2006 captain Peter Hafner.

Hafner and junior forward Steve Mandes split the Ralph “Cooney” Weiland award for devotion and spirited play, while sophomores Paul Dufault and J.D. McCabe, a forward and a blueliner respectively, split the Donald Angier award for improvement.

Defenseman Brian McCafferty took home the George Percy award for the team’s top rookie, and senior goaltender John Daigneau was presented the banquet’s last piece of hardware, the John Tudor Memorial Cup for the most valuable player.

After three frustrating years on the bench, Daigneau earned the starting job this season and racked up 19 wins, the third-best single-season win total in Harvard hockey history.

Next year, Reese will lead a team that loses five current seniors the impending June commencement: forwards Dan Murphy and Charlie Johnson, defenseman Hafner and Tom Walsh, and Daigneau between the pipes.

—REBECCA A. SEESEL