Vermont Capitalizes on the Power Play

Going into the weekend series against Vermont, Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni identified the Catamounts’ frenetic pace and its success on the power play as two possible pitfalls for his team.

“Vermont can score goals on the power play,” Mazzoleni said before the series began. “You can control Vermont when they’re not on the power play.”

Despite the Crimson’s 4-2 win in Friday night’s contest, Mazzoleni had plenty to be unhappy about after the game: 12 penalties, accounting for 24 minutes and eight man-advantages for Vermont.

“I didn’t like the penalties; I didn’t like the penalties at all,” Mazzoleni said.

He liked the results of those penalties even less—two third-period goals that allowed Vermont to pull within one with over 10 minutes remaining.

“We had them in a 3-0 situation and we allowed them to get back by being undisciplined,” Mazzoleni said. “You just can’t do that.”

In the pivotal third period, Harvard was whistled six times, including calls for too many men on the ice, hitting from behind and diving.

“The penalties we took allowed them to get back into the game,” Moore said.

Game two was another story all together.

“Oh, we had a talking-to, believe me,” Mazzoleni said. “But I thought our guys responded extremely well. We executed everything we had to do tonight.”

In addition to executing on offense throughout the course of the second game, the Crimson was able to keep its composure on defense as well, avoiding costly mistakes that made game one tighter than it needed to be.

Although Harvard was whistled for seven penalties in the game, no Crimson player was sent to the bin in the third when play got very chippy and there were extracurriculars following nearly every whistle.

“I didn’t think [our penalties] were at all undisciplined penalties,” Mazzoleni said. “I thought our kids played extremely hard.”

Mazzoleni’s comments found agreement across the ice from Vermont coach Mike Gilligan.

“They came out hard tonight, harder than they did last night,” Gilligan said. “They played a lot better than they did last night. If Harvard plays like that against Cornell, they could steal the show.”

Going Steady

Allowing just three goals on the weekend, stopping 54 of 57 shots, and padding his already gaudy numbers in Harvard’s two-game sweep of Vermont was just another day at the office for sophomore goaltender Dov Grumet-Morris.

Grumet-Morris has the second highest save percentage in the nation at .930 percent, and has moved into a tie for third place in the country in goals against average at 2.19.

Despite his success this weekend, the Catamounts managed to test Grumet-Morris in both games, especially in the third period of game one. When Harvard drew five straight penalties in fewer than seven minutes, he faced four over-lapping power plays. Two of those power plays resulted in goals, which helped pull Vermont back into the game.

“Our job on that [extended penalty kill] was to try and hold them,” Grumet-Morris said. “Obviously we gave up two goals, but they also had a tremendous amount of opportunities, so in the long run we did the job we needed to do.”

His statement was directed at the Crimson penalty killers, who successfully fended off 11 of the Catamount’s 13 chances, but their job was made all the easier by Grumet-Morris’ excellent control of rebounds and positioning to cut down on angles.

Grumet-Morris’ stat line was a near mirror of his numbers in last year’s quarterfinals against Brown, when he stopped 53 of 55 shots on the weekend and established the solid play that help Harvard advance into the NCAA tournament.

After all was said and done on Saturday night, Mazzoleni lauded Grumet-Morris’ play.

“I thought [Grumet-Morris] played exceptional,” Mazzoleni said. “He’s playing the way he played in the playoffs last year. He’s been a real steady influence for us. It gives your team and the coaching staff a lot of confidence.”

Missing in Action

Sophomore forward Brendan Bernakevitch missed both games against Vermont, two weeks removed from his return to action against Clarkson and St. Lawrence. Bernakevitch had missed nearly a month of time with a hip flexor and he re-aggravated it in practice. Mazzoleni was hopeful that he would be back in the lineup for the ECAC semifinals on Friday.

Junior forward Tyler Kolarik left the ice early in Friday night’s game against Vermont, and saw no ice time on Saturday. Kolarik sustained an injury to his shoulder and is questionable for the rest of the season.

Albany and Onward?

Harvard will face Dartmouth at 7 p.m. on Friday evening in Albany, N.Y. in an ECAC semifinal matchup. The Big Green, the No. 3 seed in the tournament, defeated Colgate 5-2 on Sunday night to secure its spot.

The series presented a challenge for Dartmouth, as the No. 8-seeded Red Raiders took the opening game 4-3 in quadruple overtime. It was the third longest game in men’s NCAA Division I history. The Big Green rallied back on Saturday, winning 3-1 before closing out Colgate on Sunday.

Dartmouth and the Crimson are familiar foes, having played most recently on Feb. 21 at Thompson Arena. On that occasion, Harvard won 4-1, and the Crimson took the teams’ earlier meeting at Bright as well.

Harvard seems to match up very well against the Big Green, but talented players like freshman forward Hugh Jessiman, sophomore Lee Stempniak and co-captain Trevor Byrne assure that Dartmouth is a serious threat.

Unlike the Big Green’s three games at home, the Crimson’s sweep of Vermont provided two advantages: an extra day of rest and confidence for the road ahead.

“This [playoff sweep] is a good momentum builder for us going into Albany,” Mazzoleni said.

—Staff writer Timothy M. McDonald can be reached at tmcdonal@fas.harvard.edu.