Yale Highlights Weekend of Conference Play

The Harvard men’s hockey team has yet to string together two wins in a row this season. The Crimson looks to change that trend and return to .500 this weekend when it faces conference rivals Brown and No. 8 Yale on Friday and Saturday night in its last conference matches of 2013.

Harvard (4-6-1, 2-5-1 ECAC) enters this weekend’s competition after a 2-1 loss to Dartmouth on Nov. 30 that came down to the final minutes of play.

“I think during practice this week we have been stressing that our power play needs to be better,” sophomore forward Jimmy Vesey said. “We were 0-for-6 against Dartmouth. We had one with about five minutes left when it was 1-1, and if we scored on that power play, the game could have turned out differently. That can be a huge difference for us this weekend.”

With its performance in Hanover, the Crimson fell to 13 percent on the power play—last in the conference and seventh-worst in Division I. Two seasons ago, Harvard boasted the best power play in the country, scoring on 27.3 percent of its man advantages.

On Friday night, Harvard will take on the Bears (3-6-1, 1-4-1 ECAC) in Providence for the first time this season. Last year, the teams split their matchups, and the last time the Crimson traveled to face Brown in Providence, the team fell, 5-2.

The Bears’ season has followed an arc similar to Harvard’s, starting the season in a winning fashion but then tapering off as of late to fall to three games below .500. Brown sits 11th in the ECAC, two points behind the Crimson.

“Right now this year we have been a little inconsistent in our results,” captain Dan Ford said. “We had a good win last week against New Hampshire and then a loss against Dartmouth, so we are trying to find some consistency here and trying to win some games in a row, so that’s what we are working toward.”

Offensively, the Crimson and Brown both look to their younger players to contribute. Bears sophomore forwards Mark Naclerio and Nick Lappin lead the team’s scoring chart with 13 and 11 points, respectively.

For Harvard, the majority of its goals this season have been scored by either freshmen or sophomores. Vesey and fellow sophomore forward Kyle Criscuolo lead the team with seven goals each. Sophomore Brian Hart is the team’s leading set-up man with six assists, followed by freshmen Luke Esposito and Sean Malone with five.

“[The underclassmen] are going to continue to play a really pivotal role for us,” Ford said. “Those guys have stepped in and performed really well, and we are going to count on them to continue to do so.”

On defense, Harvard boasts the third-best penalty kill in the country with a 90.5 percent effectiveness rate. In goal, senior Raphael Girard and junior Steve Michalek have combined for a .929 save percentage.

On Saturday in New Haven, Conn., the Crimson will take on the defending national champion Bulldogs (6-2-2, 3-1-2 ECAC) for the first of three games the teams will play against each other this season. Yale is Harvard’s most contested opponent in program history, and Saturday will be the teams’ 240th meeting.

Last year, the Crimson dropped both its contests with the Bulldogs, though Harvard leads the all-time series, 138-81-18.

Yale sits sixth in the ECAC standings and three points ahead of Harvard. The Bulldogs have dropped their only two games to fellow Ivy League opponents Brown and Cornell.

“We all know that Yale is a good team, they have been for the past five or so years,” Vesey said. “They are a fast team; we know that and are preparing our front for them. After Friday’s game against Brown, we will be able to focus more on Yale.”

Unlike Harvard’s, Yale’s offense is more spread out, with 19 players contributing at least one goal this season. Senior forward Jesse Root leads the team with six goals on the season. Time in net for the Bulldogs is split between freshmen Alex Lyon and Patrick Spano, who have posted a save percentage of .917 through ten games.

“It will be a really exciting game because it’s the first time we will be able to play them since they won their national championship,” Ford said. “We are looking forward to that as a bit of a measuring stick for us going into the break.”