CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – No. 20 Harvard men's ice hockey hosts Umass and Boston College this weekend in a pair of games over the Holiday weekend. Harvard will face the minutemen on Black Friday before a matchup with the Eagles on Sunday. Puck drop Is set for 4:30 p.m. on Friday and 1:00 p.m. on Sunday. The game on Friday will be aired live on NESN and the game on Sunday will be available on ESPN+. The third annual teddy bear toss will be held on Sunday against Boston College. Fans are encouraged to bring new teddy bears.
 
SCOUTING THE COMPETITION

• The Minutemen come to Cambridge after posting an 8-3-1 record and a 4-2-1 conference record. Starting the year with wins over AIC and Dartmouth, UMass hosted No. 6 Michigan at the Mullins Center earlier in the season. After earning a split against the nationally ranked Wolverines, UMass traveled to Minnesota and took two games from Minnesota State. Returning to conference play, the Minutemen suffered one loss and pulled out a tie against No. 9 BU before taking an overtime matchup against Northeastern. UMass then split a series with Vermont at home before taking both games in a home and home with No. 5 Providence College. 
• Scott Morrow currently leads the team in points with three goals and 11 assists in 12 games this season while Michael Hrabal has played nine games between the pipes posting a 2.45 GAA
• Boston College comes to Bright-Landry on Sunday after a quick trip to South Bend to take on Notre Dame. The No. 2 Eagles have been on a tear this year after already posting a 9-2-1 record in 2023-24. At this point in the season last year the Eagles were sitting at 4-4-2. BC knocked off the defending champions on night one after Cutter Gautier scored the winner in overtime. The nationally ranked Eagles have wins over Quinnipiac, LIU, RPI, Michigan State, UMass Lowell, and UConn. 
• Nationally, the Eagles currently are currently a top-10 team in goals per game after posting a 3.67 through 12 games. Leading the way is Cutter Gautier with 11 goals, Will Smith with 6 goals, and Ryan Leonard with four goals in his last six games. 
• The Crimson has an all-time record of 6-2-1 against UMass and is 1-1-1 in its last three matchups. Harvard fell to UMass in its last meeting in 2019 4-0 in the NCAA Tournament. 
• Harvard has an all-time record of 49-77-7 against the Eagles and is 2-2-1 over its last five games against its rival from Chestnut Hill. The Crimson defeated BC in overtime in the first round of the Beanpot Last season after a last-second goal from first-year Marek Hejduk.  

LAST TIME OUT

• Harvard hit the road and got points in both games its last time out against Cornell and Colgate. On its first doubleheader road trip of the season, the Crimson tied Colgate on Friday night before defeating No. 7 Cornell 3-2 at Lynah Rink on Saturday. Harvard now has points in four of its five games this season. 
• The Crimson skated to a 2-2 tie on Friday after getting big goals from Casey Severo and the first career goal from Ben MacDonald Aku Koskenvuo took game one of the back-to-back after making 29 saves on the evening. 
• Harvard followed that up with its regulation first win of the season in a big win over the nationally ranked Big Red. Derek Mullahy was solid behind the pipes after recording 27 saves while Joe Miller added his third tally of the season just seconds into the first period before Alex Gaffney added two others to lift Harvard to the win on Saturday. 

JOE MILLER LEADS THE WAY 

• Miller scored his first two goals of the season against Princeton including the game-tying goal late in the third period. Miller added his first of the season on a power-play strike to give Harvard a first-period lead. Millers' first-period goal was the first for the Crimson this season on the power play. 
• Miller added his third of the season against Cornell after finding the back of the net In the opening seconds. 

CHASING 300

• Coach Donato sits at 299 career wins after defeating No. 7 Cornell on Nov. 11

FROM THE BLUE LINE

• Sophomore defenseman Ryan Healey has four points in five games this year after adding an assist on the Severo goal against Dartmouth while also adding a pair of helpers against Princeton the following weekend. Healey added his fourth assist of the season against Cornell.  

THE NEW GUYS 

• Harvard welcomes seven first-years to the program including Michael Callow, a fifth-round selection of the Anaheim Ducks, and Ben MacDonald, a third-round selection of the Seattle Kraken.
• Ryan Fine netted his first career goal in the first period against Princeton last weekend. Off an assist from fellow rookie, Ben MacDonald, Fine was able to get a piece of a saucer pass for his first collegiate goal. MacDonald would add another assist later in the game for his second point of the night. 
• Cam Johnson added another assist last weekend after making a great move towards the net. Johnson fired a shot that Marek Hejduk was able to corral to score the third goal of the game for Harvard.
• Ben MacDonald scored his first career goal against Colgate after picking a corner on a tough angle shot to tie the game. Ryan Fine added another assist after putting a puck on net that Casey Severo got a piece of for his second goal of the season. 
• Out of the 29 total points scored to date this season – first years have added 10 of them.

NEXT UP 
The Crimson hit the road for its longest road trip of the year against Clarkson and St.Lawrence next weekend.