NOTEBOOK: M. Hockey Weathers Tough Slate

On Friday night, the Harvard men’s hockey team did something it hadn’t been able to do all of last season. It went over .500.

The Crimson’s 3-0 victory over No. 16 Rensselaer propelled its record to 2-1, a far cry from the 0-3 mark it began its season with last year. A 4-0 shutdown of Union the next night raised the question of whether this season’s team has the talent to reclaim its usual place as a national powerhouse.

“This is a good start,” said Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91. “We want to get the points—the points at the beginning of the season can be just as important as the ones at the end.”

Two of the Crimson’s wins have come against St. Lawrence, widely considered to be one of the better teams in the ECAC, and the ranked Engineers. On the other hand, Harvard’s only loss came in the season opener against Clarkson, the team that bounced the Crimson from the ECAC playoffs last season.

“Having that northern road trip [to Clarkson and St. Lawrence] as our first weekend, we’re definitely thrilled to be in the position we are right now,” sophomore goaltender Kyle Richter said. “Any time you’re above .500…playing the teams that we’ve played, we’re definitely happy with how things are.”

Donato, however, warned against starting the celebration too early, as the team has set higher benchmarks for itself than a mere .500 record.

“We spent two years being fifth and ninth in the country, [then] we have one year where we lose 10 one-goal games—you split those in half, we’re close to being a 20-win team again last year,” Donato said. “So I don’t think anybody in that [locker] room thinks that we’re not a team that can challenge for the league title and be an NCAA [Tournament]-type team.”

NET GAIN

It might have been easy to think that Kyle Richter became the Harvard goaltender by default. After all, the only truly viable alternative, Justin Tobe ’07, graduated after winning the starting job over Richter late last season.

Richter, however, isn’t playing like a last resort. To anyone who might have thought so, the blanking of Rensselaer and Union proved otherwise. It was the first time since February 1982 that the Crimson has recorded consecutive shutouts.

“Every night, he’s making two or three saves that are difference-makers,” Donato said. “The one key way to erase a lot of mistakes is by having a great performance in the net, and Kyle’s given us that so far this season.”

Friday’s contest will go down as an easy 3-0 win, but it was, until the end, a 1-0 pressure cooker, and Richter kept his composure throughout the game, turning back 28 Engineers shots.

“Nothing needs to be said about Kyle Richter,” co-captain and defenseman Dave MacDonald said, adding, “Any [chances] they got, he was just playing confidently, and it’s nice to have that behind us.”

On Saturday night, Richter looked flawless again, turning away 28 shots on goal against a Dutchmen squad that aggressively crashed the net and often pursued a vigorous forecheck as Harvard tried to clear the puck.

With two shutouts to his name, he now boasts an 0.75 goals-against average and a gaudy .975 save percentage, both numbers best in the nation.

Richter allowed two goals in the season-opening loss to the Golden Knights and surrendered just one in the win over the Saints before blanking Rensselaer and Union.

If his improvement continues, the only thing left for him to do may be to score a goal or two of his own.

KILLING TIME

Despite committing seven penalties on Saturday night and another seven the night before, playing a man down for a combined total of 28 minutes, Harvard’s penalty-killing units never allowed their opponents to capitalize.

On both nights, Richter performed flawlessly despite the one-man deficit, stopping the five shots let loose by the Engineers and another eight power-play shots from the Dutchmen.

“The [penalty kill] has been really good all year so far,” Richter said. “We’ve been blocking shots, keeping them out to the outside, and eliminating their passes.”

Through its first four games, though the Crimson committed a total of 24 penalties, the team has only given up one power-play goal, good for a .958 penalty-kill percentage.

TWO-MINUTE MINORS

Sophomore defenseman Jack Christian added to his team-leading scoring total with his third goal of the season Friday against Rensselaer. Two of his scores have come in the form of empty-netters…On Saturday night, co-captain Mike Taylor, freshman defender Chris Huxley, and senior forward Tyler Magura each recorded their first goals of the season. Huxley’s score, a slapshot from the point that beat Union goalie Corey Milan 9:45 into the game, was the first of his collegiate career…Over the course of the weekend, seven different Crimson players lit the lamp, and six combined for a total of seven assists…Apparently, playing shorthanded doesn’t faze Harvard, as the team managed to score on Saturday night when Magura beat Milan 12:22 into the third period. Christian’s empty-net goal on Friday night was also scored with the Crimson on the penalty kill.

—Staff writer Robert T. Hamlin can be reached at rhamlin@fas.harvard.edu. —Staff writer Daniel J. Rubin-Wills can be reached at drubin@fas.harvard.edu.