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From: "Deron Treadwell" <[log in to unmask]>
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Sent: Friday, March 22, 2002 10:25 PM
Subject: Crimson, but now hardly red-faced


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>                      Friday, March 22, 2002
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>                                             Crimson, but now hardly
red-faced
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>                         By   MIKE LOWE, Portland Press Herald Writer
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>                       Copyright  2002 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
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>  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)
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>    What: First-round game, East regional
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>    When: Noon Saturday
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>    Where: Worcester (Mass.)  Centrum
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>    Television: Channel 10, Maine PBS
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>  To top of story
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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.
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> 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.
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> And the Crimson are as dangerous as any team in the tournament.
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> "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."
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> 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.
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> "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."
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> 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.
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> "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."
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> 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.
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> "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."
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> 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."
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> 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.
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> "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."
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> Now they're ready. And, Mazzoleni said, that late-season struggle has
certainly prepared the Crimson for Maine.
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> "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.
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> "We were just trying to survive."
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> Staff Writer Mike Lowe can be contacted at 791-6422 or at:
>
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