Men's Hockey Preps For Start of League Play

The Harvard men’s ice hockey team continues its quest for redemption as it looks to defeat No. 10 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in what could be the Engineers’ first loss at home this season.

The Crimson (1-0-0, 0-0-0 ECAC) will travel to Houston Field House on Tuesday evening to face RPI (4-1-0, 0-0-0 ECAC), commencing conference play for both teams. Harvard will confront the Engineers again on Friday, completing the home-and-home series at the Bright-Landry Hockey Center.

Last season, the Crimson matched up against the Engineers twice. Harvard raked in the win in its first meeting of the 2012-’13 season, besting RPI 4-0. However, in its second contest, the Engineers found the back of the net three times while a strong defense held the Crimson scoreless.

In its opening game against Bentley on Saturday, the Crimson kept the Falcons off the board for the entirety of the game. But Harvard’s defense struggled with some key aspects of play.

“We need to block some more shots,” sophomore Kyle Criscuolo said. “[Bentley] got 43 shots against our team.”

Veteran goaltender Raphael Girard was crucial to the Crimson’s success against Bentley.

“Girard has an unbelievable game. He can make some really hard saves look easy,” junior Tommy O’Regan said.

Harvard will look to Girard again in the upcoming two games against RPI to lead the team defensively against some strong Engineer attackers. Ryan Haggerty, the nation’s leading scorer so far this season, comes into the game with eight goals to his name; but, the Crimson held Haggerty goalless in its last meeting.

“We had some trouble getting the puck out sometimes,” O’Regan said. “And RPI will definitely take advantage of those opportunities if we are slow to transition.”

Harvard was also unable to capitalize on man-up opportunities against the Falcons. Despite this struggle on special teams the team is not concerned about its ability to score on power plays.

“We’ll practice and go over some specifics,” O’Regan said. “We will end up scoring on the power play…. It’s early in the season and everyone is still figuring everything out.”

The Crimson will depend on a number of newcomers to help the team capture the victory against the Engineers. Rookies Alexander Kerfoot and Sean Malone—the team’s only two NHL draft picks in the recruiting class of 2017—each tallied an assist against Bentley.

“We have a lot of young guys, who are looking pretty comfortable especially for their first college games,” O’Regan said. “They are definitely going to help the team a lot.”

Kerfoot and Malone skate alongside classmate forwards Luke Esposito, Tyler Moy, Devin Tringale, and Phil Zielonka, and their three defensive counterparts, Clay Anderson, Victor Newell, and Kevin Guiltinan.

Some returning forwards have already shined for Harvard early in the season, including Criscuolo, who added two to the scoreboard against Bentley.

O’Regan also tallied a point against Bentley. But finding the back of the net may be harder against a physical Engineers defense.

“RPI has some big defenseman so we’re going to have to work on getting it behind them coming in the zone and then pressuring hard,” O’Regan said.

RPI’s strong defense has held opponents to an average of 1.30 goals per game in the Engineer’s three-game winning streak. In last year’s loss against Rensselaer, the Engineer’s back line held the Crimson to just 11 shots on the night.

“We got a slow start [against Bentley],” Criscuolo said. “The first period we have to keep it simple against RPI. They’re a big team so we know we’re going to have to get guys behind their defensemen and use our own speed…. This year they have already proven themselves. They have played quite a few good teams and have been successful.”

No. 13/14 Boston University has been one of RPI’s big name opponents in the season thus far. The Engineers topped the Terriers earlier this month, 3-1, with two goals from Ryan Haggerty. Their only loss came against then No. 5 Boston College, a 7-2 defeat suffered last Wednesday.

“We played pretty well as a team for the first game,” O’Regan said. “We are coming into the game with the confidence that we can definitely hold our own against a big RPI lineup.”

—Staff writer David A. Mazza can be reached at damazza@college.harvard.edu. Follow him on Twitter @David_Mazza1.