Resurgent Men's Hockey To Face Cornell in ECAC Semis

Coming into the 2011-12 season, expectations were set pretty low for the Harvard men’s hockey team. The once-proud program appeared destined for another lackluster season, and voters in the ECAC Hockey Preseason Media Poll picked the Crimson to finish dead last in the conference.

But five months later, after a third-place finish in the league, a first-round bye, and a dramatic victory over Yale in the best-of-three ECAC quarterfinals series, the No. 19 Crimson sits in the semifinals of the ECAC Hockey Championships, two wins away from claiming a conference title for the first time since 2004.

“It was no question that it was a chip on our shoulder for where we got picked,” Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91 said. “We knew we had talent in the locker room, and we tried to prove it all season to everybody.”

With a national ranking in hand for the first time in over three years, Harvard will try to continue its unexpected run in the semis when it takes on bitter conference rival No. 13 Cornell on Friday night at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J.

The Crimson (12-9-11, 8-5-9 ECAC) did not fare well in the 2011-12 regular season matchups with the Big Red (17-7-7, 12-4-6). After falling to Cornell, 4-2, on Nov. 11 at home, the Crimson managed a 2-2 tie amidst the dead fish in Ithaca, N.Y. on Jan. 21.

“[Playing Cornell] really adds to the excitement,” junior forward Alex Fallstrom said. “We haven’t had that much success against them this year, but I think this will be a great opportunity to get back at them.”

The teams took quite different routes to the semis. The second-place Big Red rolled past Dartmouth unscathed in its quarterfinals series, sweeping the Big Green with 4-3 and 3-1 victories. On the other hand, Yale gave Harvard all it could handle in the quarters, as the Bulldogs took game one before the Crimson staved off elimination by winning games two and three.

But there will be no series comeback for either squad this time around in Friday’s win-or-go-home contest.

The matchup looks poised to become a battle of the goaltenders, as the game pits two of the ECAC’s top netminders against one another.

Between the pipes the Big Red starts sophomore Andy Iles, who, in addition to earning a 0.920 save percentage, held league opponents scoreless for 286 consecutive minutes to set a conference record. For his play, the sophomore is one of three finalists for the league’s goaltender of the year award.

“He’s been very consistent…but also played well in big games,” Cornell coach Mike Schafer said of Iles. “Right now, we’re looking at him in his practice habits, and he’s on top of his game…and you need that in your goaltender.”

Iles forms the backstop of a vaunted Big Red defense, which held league opponents to 2.07 goals per game, second-best in the ECAC.

But the Crimson counters with a high-level goaltender of its own. After rookie goaltender Steve Michalek minded the net for most of the season, Donato replaced the freshman with sophomore goalie Raphael Girard. In his 665 minutes in net—far less than Michalek’s 1336—Girard has saved 93.2 percent of shots, the second-best mark in the conference.

And Girard seems to be peaking at the right time. Perhaps the best performance of the sophomore’s young career came last weekend against Yale, when he stopped 129 of the 136 shots he faced.

“Friday night [against Yale], there were times when he kept us in the game to get it into overtime,” Donato said. “Raphael was outstanding over the weekend, and I think it’s given our team a lot of confidence going forward.”

On the offensive side, the Big Red does not have the individual threats that the Crimson does in senior forward Alex Killorn, who tallied his 50th career goal and 100th career point against Yale, and junior defenseman Danny Biega, one of two finalists for the ECAC Hockey Player of the Year.

The top point scorer for Cornell is Greg Miller, 24th in the conference with 29 points, behind Killorn (42), Biega (34), junior forward Marshall Everson (29), and freshman defenseman Patrick McNally (29). Those four Crimson skaters, along with Fallstrom, helped Harvard convert on its power play 28.4 percent of the time, the second-best mark in the nation.

But the Big Red still averages 2.97 goals per game, just behind the Crimson’s 3.09 mark, through a balanced offense. In Cornell’s two games against Harvard this season, five different Big Red players scored.

“We know they’re more good as a collective team [than through individual standouts],” Fallstrom said. “I feel like they have four strong lines, and they can all generate offense.”

Against the Big Red’s deep attack, coupled with its highly touted defense, the Crimson will have its hands full on Friday night.

“Whenever you play a Mike Schafer-coached Cornell team, you know you’re going to get a team with great discipline, great attention to detail, outstanding goaltending, and I don’t think that’s different this year,” Donato said. “We’re excited about the opportunity, but we know we’re going to have to elevate our game.”

—Staff writer Robert S. Samuels can be reached at robertsamuels@college.harvard.edu.