Harvard hopes to celebrate a win against its old rival
Tuesday night (photo courtesy J.J. Miller).
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Game On
Old rivals Harvard and Yale meet for the 229th time
Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Bright Hockey Center. Playing its third game
in five days, the Crimson looks to hand the fifth-ranked Bulldogs
their first Ivy League loss.
Follow From Home
Live video of the game will be available with a Crimson Video
subscription on GoCrimson.com, which also provides free live
statistics. WHRB-FM 95.3 and WHRB.org offer live audio.
Behind the Bench
Former Crimson captain, NCAA Frozen Four Most Outstanding Player
and 13-year National Hockey League veteran Ted Donato '91 is
in his sixth season as The Robert D. Ziff '88 Head Coach for
Harvard Men's Ice Hockey. He owns an 84-78-19 record, three
ECAC title-game appearances and two NCAA tournament bids.
Last Weekend
Minnesota took two games from Harvard in Ted Donato's first
games against the Golden Gophers since leading Harvard to a win
against Minnesota to claim the 1989 NCAA title as a player.
The Gophers won Friday's series opener, 5-2. Chad Morin
(Auburn, N.Y.) scored to tie the game late in the second period,
but the Gophers scored four times in the third. The final U of M
tally came on an empty net with two seconds remaining, after Morin
had scored a second goal to cut the deficit to two. Daniel Moriarty
(Bienfait, Sask.) registered two assists, and Kyle Richter
(Calgary, Alta.) made 40 saves.
A night later, Colin Moore (Medfield, Mass.) scored, assisted by
David Valek (Zagreb, Croatia), to give Harvard a first-period lead,
but the Gophers scored once in each period for a 3-1 victory.
Richter made 40 saves for the second straight night.
Adding Offense
Chad Morin, who has gained notice for his standout defensive play
in recent weeks, scored the fourth and fifth goals of his career
Friday at Minnesota, ending a goal-scoring drought of more than two
years. It was the 101st game of his career and his first multi-goal
game. The two points equaled his previous career high, set with a
highlight-reel goal and an assist Feb. 23, 2007 against Colgate.
His most recent goal before Friday came at Quinnipiac Jan. 4,
2008.
Who's Hot?
After recording two assists Friday at Minnesota, Daniel Moriarty
has eight points on three goals and five assists in the last seven
games. The two-helper night was Moriarty's fourth
multiple-point game, tying him with Michael Biega (Montreal, Que.)
for the team lead. Moriarty is tied with Louis Leblanc for second
on the team in scoring with 10 points on four goals and six
assists.
Impressing the Scouts
Danny Biega (Montreal, Que.) is ranked 31st among North American
skaters on NHL Central Scouting's midseason ranking of 2010
NHL Entry Draft prospects, released Monday. He is one of four
current collegians, the only one from an Eastern school, on the
list. Biega, who turned 18 just a month before the start of the
season, has skated in all 14 of Harvard's games.
Pacing the Crimson
Michael Biega paces Harvard with 12 points and shares the team
assists lead with Chris Huxley (Weymouth, Mass.). Conor Morrison
(London, Ont.) leads the squad with six goals. Louis Leblanc
(Kirkland, Que.) holds the team scoring lead in ECAC play with nine
league points (four goals, five assists).
Alex Killorn (Montreal, Que.) has logged a team-leading 57 shots on
goal, one more than Biega. Doug Rogers (Watertown, Mass.) has won
55.6 percent of his faceoffs (143-114).
Power Source
The Crimson ranks 17th nationally with a 21.2-percent efficiency on
the power play (11 for 52).
Outside the Box
Harvard is the nation's 10th-least-penalized team,
averaging just 11.6 penalty minutes per contest.
Halfway Home
This game is Harvard's 15th, bringing the Crimson
past the regular season's midpoint. Both the Bulldogs and
Crimson are playing their fifth of 10 Ivy League games, but Harvard
will still have 12 of its 10 ECAC Hockey contests remaining to be
played after this game.
A Challenging Stretch
Harvard is facing its third top-10 opponent in a span of
three home games. The Crimson previously fell to No. 10 Boston
College, 3-2, and defeated No. 8 Quinnipiac, 3-1. Following a home
game Monday against Dartmouth, the Crimson travels to take on
another ranked team, No. 13 Union.
The Bright Stuff
The Crimson is 54-25-3 (.677) at home under Ted Donato and
276-118-28 (.687) all-time at Bright Hockey Center.
The Bright Stuff, Rivalry Edition
Harvard is 28-3-3 (.870) against Yale at Bright Hockey Center.
Series History
Harvard's series with Brown is its oldest, but the
110-year-old rivalry with Yale is its most-contested. Harvard leads
the all-time series, 136-74-18. The teams first met Feb. 26, 1900,
a 5-4 Elis win in New York City. In 1913, six weeks after voting to
make hockey a “major sport,” the Harvard Athletic
Committee voted to award a varsity letter to any Harvard player who
had ever skated against Yale. The first of two Yale wins last
season ended Harvard's four-game series win streak that
started with a home sweep of the teams' 2007 first-round
playoff series. The Crimson is 6-5-1 against the Bulldogs under Ted
Donato.
Inspiration for Innovation
The Harvard-Yale rivalry was the impetus for one of the great
innovations in hockey history. In their March 7, 1923 game against
Yale, Harvard coach William H. Claflin '15 and captain George
Owen '23 implemented the practice of changing entire lines of
three forwards at a time. The tactic, which became known as the
line change, helped the Crimson defeat the Bulldogs, 2-1, in
overtime.
Harvard vs. Yale in 2008-09
Yale scored three goals in the first half of the opening period on
the way to a 6-2 win against the Crimson Jan. 10 at Bright. Jimmy
Fraser '09 scored two goals in the loss, Harvard's
first in an ECAC home game in nearly a year. Brian O'Neill
netted a pair of goals for the Bulldogs, opening the scoring at
1:47 of the first period.
The Elis completed the season sweep with a 5-1 win Feb. 6 at
Ingalls Rink. No. 14 Yale scored four unanswered goals to pull away
from a first-period tie and totaled four goal goals on the power
play. Matt McCollem (Westford, Mass.) scored for Harvard, but the
Crimson's streak of seven straight league wins on the weekend
between Beanpot games came to an end.
Scouting the Bulldogs
After starting slowly at 2-2-2, Yale has been tough to beat of
late. The only imperfections on the Bulldogs' record in the
last nine games are a 1-0 loss at Vermont Nov. 30 and a 2-2 tie at
Wisconsin in the championship of the Badger Hockey Showdown Jan. 3.
The host Badgers took the tournament title in a shootout, but Yale
maintained its momentum, winning at Dartmouth, 4-2, Sunday.
Mark Arcobello scored twice against the Big Green and is one of
Yale's seven double-digit scorers. Brian O'Neill leads
the team with 20 points and 12 assists, while Broc Little has a
team-high 11 goals. Three goaltenders have seen significant time
for Yale, with freshmen Jeff Malcolm and Nick Maricic rotating in
recent games. Malcom made 29 saves against Dartmouth and has the
team's best numbers: a 4-1-0 record, .916 save percentage and
2.01 goals-against average.
Ivy Implications
Following Tuesday's game, all six Ivy League hockey teams
will have played five Ivy games. A Crimson win would lift Harvard
into third place, three points back of Yale and Cornell. A Bulldogs
win would give Yale a two-point edge halfway through the Ancient
Eight season. Yale is the defending Ivy champion. Harvard won its
league???high 21st Ivy crown in 2005-06. The Ivy title has been
awarded since the official founding of the league in 1955-56.
Click
here for full Harvard men's hockey notes in PDF format.
