So who would you rather play if you were the Harvard men's hockey team?
1) A team you have already faced three times this season--with two wins to show for your efforts, or
2)Someone you haven't faced since 1989, a team that has been in the news lately more because its arena is being torn down than for its successes in that rink?
Not that Harvard (23-4-4) has any say in whom it will face, as ECAC foe Rensselaer (21-10-4) will square off against Hokey East's University of New Hampshire (24-11-3) at 8:30 p.m. Friday night in an NCAA first-round match-up at Albany's Kinickerbocker Arena.
The victor will then try to knock off the Crimson Saturday at 8:30 p.m.
"It really doesn't matter," captain Sean McCann said. "We go out there and try to put out a solid effort every time."
In the Red corner, there is the East Region's sixth-seeded team, those same RPI Engineers that the Crimson bumped off in the ECAC tournament final this past Saturday, 3-0.
The Engineers started off the 1993-94 campaign playing very inconsistent hockey (6-5 in their first 11 games), but they then went on a nine-game unbeaten streak to straighten things out.
Much of the credit has to go to Hobey Baker candidate Neil Little, who be-Littled Harvard with a 45-save performance in RPI's 4-3 win on December 4 up at Troy, N.Y. The Engineers' solid streak began shortly thereafter.
However, Harvard took the next two meetings between the two squads. Little was true to his name in a 7-5 barnburner loss the Harvard at the Bright Hockey Center on February 25, and although he played very well in Saturday's ECAC Championship, his performance alone wasn't good enough to knock off Harvard.
"Little played as good a weekend as he had all year long," RPI Coach Buddy Powers said. "You just saw how good a team Harvard is."
The Engineers are led by captain Ron Pasco, who has scored 17 goals and racked up 40 assists in 35 games. But try as he might, Pasco couldn't get the rubber disk past Harvard goalie Aaron Israel Saturday night on any of his numerous scoring opportunities.
Forwards Bryan Richardson (23-29-52) and Craig Hamelin (19-29-48) have also been steady offensive supplies for RPI.
The defense, led by Little, has been stingy, allowing around three goals a game. The Engineers haven't allowed more than three goals against in their last four games, and they allowed four or more goals once during its nine-game unbeaten streak.
The RPI defense plays an aggressive style not only with its backcheck but also its after-the-whistle check, as Cam Cuthbert is known in these parts as one of the best in game at getting away with late hits.
On specialty teams, the power-play is operating at 25-percent, while the tenacious penalty-killing units have smothered 86-percent of its opponents' extra-man situations.
But for the Engineers to advance in their home town of Albany, they will need big performances from Little. First things first, RPI will have to take care of UNH before it can think about getting revenge against Harvard.
The Wildcats come into the NCAA tournament as the third-seeded team in the East Region.
Like RPI, UNH has had an up-and-down season, but unlike the Engineers, the Wildcats have struggled to the finish.
They started out with seven straight wins, but went only 17-11-3 over the rest of the stretch, and two of those wins ere forfeit victories over Maine.
Furthermore, the Wildcats dropped a Hockey East semifinal on Friday to the West's third-seeded team, UMass-Lowell, and could manage just a 4-4 tie in the consolation the next day against the West's fifth seed, Northeastern.
"We didn't do as well as we would have liked," UNH Coach Dick Umile said. "But [the NCAA's] is a great way for our team to end the season."
The Wildcats don't have too many standout players, but they have had a balanced scoring attack with 10 players racking up more than 20 points for the season. Eric Flinton leads the squad with 41 points (16 goals and 25 assists).
UNH also plays a very physical brand of hockey, sporting seven players who have accumulated over 40 minutes in penalties. Scott Malone set a single-season record for UNH with 154 minutes in the sin bin this year.
Schedule strength was pretty much what got the Wildcats the third seed. UNH defeated RPI, 6-3, up at Troy early in the season and has also defeated UMass-Lowell three times and the nation's number-one, Boston University, once.
"I think basically we've been playing well," Umile said. "We have a balanced team and a strong freshman class."
Now really, Harvard, who would you rather play?
"I don't have any preferences," senior forward Chris Baird said. "Whoever it's going to be, our coaches will have us prepared."
And with the way Harvard's defense has been playing of late--one goal allowed in 120 minutes against Brown and RPI last weekend--it probably shouldn't matter whom the Crimson will face.
Good defense and solid goaltending with games, especially come playoff time.
And Harvard has that in its six-man defensive force of McCann, seniors Derek Maguire and Lou Body, junior Bryan Lonsinger, sophomore Peter McLaughlin and freshman Ashlin Halfnight.
Throw in the inspired netminding of Israel and sophomore Tripp Tracy, and Harvard has a very good shot of going to the Final Four against either Michigan or the Lake Superior St./Northeastern victor.
"We are playing a pretty good brand of defense," Harvard Coach Ronn Tomassoni said. "Our guys have been consistent from day one."
HARVARD STATISTICS PLAYER GP G A PT PM Martins 30 24 32 56 93 Baird 30 5 37 42 18 Farrell 31 27 11 38 43 Maguire 29 6 31 37 14 McCann 31 20 16 36 80 Gustafson 29 21 10 31 28 Coughlin 31 12 RPI STATISTICS Player GP G A PT PM Pasco 34 17 40 57 80 Richardson 35 23 29 52 46 Hamelin 35 19 29 48 18 Clarke 35 22 17 39 22 Brick 35 19 13 32 102 Askew 34 13 19 32 102 Team 35 172 287 459 809 opponents 35 114 187 301 UNH STATISTICS PLAYER GP G A PT PM Flinton 38 16 25 41 36 Poole 33 10 27 37 22 Boguntecki 38 17 16 33 62 Dexter 38 16 17 33 22 Stewart 38 14 13 32 48 Donovan 34 13 19 32 48 Team 38 156 236 392 776 opponents 38 130 204 334
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