Clean-Shaven Crimson Faces UMass

Mo-vember, the month-long mustaches-against-prostate-cancer charity event is sadly over for the Harvard men’s hockey team (3-3-2, 2-3-2 ECAC), which means that the team will take to the ice for Friday night’s game against the University of Massachusetts (4-7-3) mustache-less for the first time since October.

“When you walked in the locker room there were just a lot of smiles with handlebar mustaches,” junior forward David Valek said. “It definitely raised the energy in the locker room. Maybe that helped on the ice.”

But even with the shave, Valek said that “the atmosphere definitely hasn’t dropped.”

All ‘mo’nsense aside, the team is focusing in on the game ahead, and the Minutemen are definitely not going to be push-overs.

“They have a very fast team,” Valek said. “They have three or four guys that can really fly, so we have to try and keep them ahead of us at all times.”

In addition to their speed, UMass has also built up a strong home-ice advantage. The Minutemen have yet to lose at home this season, despite welcoming several high ranking opponents to the Mullins Center.

On Nov. 5, they defeated Boston College, 4-2, which was ranked No. 1 at the time. The following week they routed Holy Cross and Northeastern in front of their home crowd.

“We’re going to focus on not getting overexcited,” freshman defenseman Patrick McNally said. “We know [UMass] has a strong home crowd so we’ll just have to keep our composure.”

Valek echoed his teammate’s concerns.

“We have to play smart early on to get the crowd out of the game,” Valek said. “Hopefully we can draw a penalty early to give us the edge on a power play.”

But perhaps the Mullins Center itself may have something to do with their flawless home record.

Beyond the boisterous UMass crowds, the Crimson will also have to worry about the rink itself.

While most rinks in North America are about 200 ft by 85 ft in dimension, the ice at the Mullins center stretches 200 ft by 95 ft. This is because the Mullins Center was designed closer to Olympic standards (200X98) than those of the National Hockey League (200X85). Harvard’s Bright Center is slightly off the mark as well, sitting at 204 ft by 87 ft. But the difference will still be noticeable.

In light of this, the team has set aside some practice time this week to look at how rink size may affect the way the game is played. And how to adapt.

“It’s a little bigger so we’ve been watching a lot of game film,” senior forward Eric Kroshus explained. “We have to figure out how it’s going to affect our game.”

If the Crimson can minimize the role the rink plays, Harvard will be looking at much better odds at coming away with a victory. UMass’s away record stands at 0-7-2, exposing some serious vulnerabilities.

The Crimson, meanwhile, seems to have continued on the scoring streak that kicked in toward the end of last season.

In the final 12 games of the 2010-2011 season, the Crimson scored 39 goals, for an average of 3.25 goals per game, a remarkable improvement over the first part of the season when the team only scored 40 goals in 23 games, just under two per game.

So far Harvard’s 2011-2012 offensive assault has built upon the improvements of last year, tallying a goal-per-game average of just over 3.77 though nine games.

These numbers may be crucial against the Minutemen, as they have lost all six games in which their opponents scored four or more goals.

The match against UMass will also give the Crimson a break from ECAC action and a chance to work on specific aspects of its game that need improvement.

“We’ve kind of struggled so far on the rushes,” Valek said. “We always leave a couple of goals on the table with the 3s on 2s, but hopefully we can get those going.”

Despite the break from league play, the team is determined to win and very aware that the Minutemen will be a tough opponent.

“We’re going to try and play a more physical game, give them the checks a lot,” Valek added. “That should help take away from their speed and ability. Also they like to play an exchange game, kind of going back and forth with goals and we can’t afford to do that.”

—Staff writer Cayla C. Calderwood can be reached at ccalderwood@college.harvard.edu.