"Sometimes he gets too tight," Matthew Blair says. "He's best when he's relaxed before a game. He's got a real habit of yawning when he's nervous. He just yawns and yawns."

Despite his moments of doubt, Blair's provided a constant level of play throughout his career.

"What's mind-boggling is his consistency," his father and coach says. "He keeps the team continually in the game."

Aside from consistency, Blair's hard-nosed attitude has been his most noticable trait.

In his junior year, Blair's aggressiveness began to spill over into his stickwork. He started directing his blade toward opposition forwards, and Grant Blair began to get penalties.

A lot of penalties.

His 26 minutes that year were just off the team high of 30--certainly a Harvard record and may be an ECAC record for a goaltender in a season.

"I laugh when people compare me to a Billy Smith-type goaltender," Blair says of the New York Islanders' slash-happy netminder. "I take it as a compliment, because I figure I'm more of a Billy Smith-type goaltender because I play well in the playoffs."

The roots of his aggressive play lie in the philosophy Blair and his father share about what sort of attitude and game it takes to make it to the big time.

"You don't let anyone intimidate you," Matthew Blair says. "In juniors they run, hack and slash a goaltender and a goalie has to stand up for himself."

Blair's antics wore Cleary the wrong way, however. The Crimson coach wants his team to play a clean game, and throughout his junior year there was clear tension between Blair and Cleary.

"My junior year, I had some tough times at Harvard," Blair says. "Leaving was in the back of my mind."

But while Cleary frowned on Blair's tactics, others, like Val Belmonte, the Harvard assistant who recruited him and is now the head coach at Illinois-Chicago, liked Blair's style.

"At times [in juniors], he would get a penalty," Belmonte says. "In a way I saw that as a positive, not a negative. Bill knows that, and he's careful not to break his spirit. For a goalie, it's not that good to be passive."

This year, Blair's penalties are down.