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http://www.portland.com/sports/college/hockey/020322harvard.shtml
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Friday, March 22, 2002
Crimson, but now hardly red-faced
By MIKE LOWE, Portland Press Herald Writer
Copyright 2002 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
Maybe those preseason predictions were right about Harvard's hockey team.
The Crimson were picked to win the ECAC this year, then they went out and played awful.
NCAA HOCKEY Who: Maine (23-10-7) vs. Harvard (15-14-4)
What: First-round game, East regional
When: Noon Saturday
Where: Worcester (Mass.) Centrum
Television: Channel 10, Maine PBS
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With a lineup plump with freshmen and sophomores, Harvard limped into the playoffs in third place. But then the Crimson swept through the playoffs, winning the final three games in overtime, to win the ECAC championship and earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Now Harvard, sporting a record of 15-14-4, will play the University of Maine in the first round at noon Saturday at the Worcester Centrum.
And the Crimson are as dangerous as any team in the tournament.
"They're here for a reason," Maine forward John Ronan said. "They're probably one of the hottest teams in the country and we have to respect that."
The Crimson's turnaround can be attributed to a team meeting before the playoffs began. Harvard finished the season on a 2-8-1 slide. Captain Peter Capouch (pronounced "Sapoo") figured enough was enough, so he asked the coaches to leave the locker room so he could have a chat with his teammates.
"I told them to try to forget the last two months and focus on the task at hand," he said. "And for some reason, we just started to believe in each other and believe we were a good team. And we started to play that way."
The young players - Harvard plays 16 freshmen and sophomores regularly - began to produce, especially freshman goalie Dov Grumet-Morris. Since Coach Mark Mazzoleni made him the starter on Feb. 23, he has a 5-2-0 record with a 1.66 goals-against average and .934 saves percentage. In the playoffs, Grumet-Morris' goals-against average is down to 1.29 in four victories.
"He's made the key saves at very important times in the game," said Capouch, a 5-foot-6 senior defenseman. "And that's something you need in the playoffs to keep the momentum on your side."
But Harvard's been more than just a one-man show. Harvard swept Brown in the first round, 4-1 and 2-1 in double overtime, then beat Clarkson 3-2 in overtime in the ECAC semifinals and rival Cornell 4-3 again in double overtime in the title game.
"Our team now has an understanding of what it takes to compete every single night," Capouch said. "The last four games, we've really played hard for a full 60 minutes in each game. The kids are finally understanding how hard we have to work every single minute to win a game."
Mazzoleni, in his third year at Harvard, called the win over Cornell "our best game of the year. We did everything we needed to do to win."
The biggest thing his team had to do was grow up. He stresses that, unlike other college hockey powers, Harvard has true freshmen, kids right out of high school, not some junior league.
"Ninety percent of the freshmen at Harvard are 18, you're dealing with a lot of young kids," he said. "It takes a freshman time to adjust, mentally, physically and (to) how to prepare."
Now they're ready. And, Mazzoleni said, that late-season struggle has certainly prepared the Crimson for Maine.
"I think probably it was the best thing that happened for us because it was such a challenge," Mazzoleni said. "We never looked ahead, we always took it one game at a time. The honest truth, we never looked past a period at a time. And maybe that helped us.
"We were just trying to survive."
Staff Writer Mike Lowe can be contacted at 791-6422 or at:
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