Fond farewells have always made for memorable scenes, as in Bobby Orr's retirement at Boston Garden and Lou Gherig's farewell speech at Yankee Stadium.
This weekend will also see a farewell at Bright Hockey Center when the seniors on this year's Harvard men's hockey team play their last regular-season home games against Clarkson tonight and St. Lawrence tomorrow night.
This year's graduating seniors include captain Brad Konik, forwards Tommy Holmes, Jason Karmanos and Kirk Nielsen, defenseman Peter McLaughlin and goalie Tripp Tracy, in addition to Geb Marett and Brian Adams.
A potential special event that almost went unnoticed by the players is a milestone that coach Ronn Tomassoni is looking to reach. Tomassoni, who owns a career record of 98-58-19, can earn his 100th win with a sweep this weekend.
"Hopefully we can play well and gain momentum for the rest of the season and the playoffs," freshman forward Craig MacDonald said. "With everyone back, we will be a formidable team entering the playoffs."
Last weekend's games were the first that saw Konik, McLaughlin, Holmes and Nielsen back in the lineup after they were out with injuries. The team played better but still came up empty with two losses to Cornell and Colgate.
So despite any personal achievements on the agenda, Harvard, like any other team, is looking to win this weekend. This task will be especially difficult considering that St. Lawrence and Clarkson have the two top offenses in the league, with Clarkson also commanding the second strongest defense.
Back in December, the Crimson came up empty against the two North Country teams, falling to St. Lawrence by a 7-3 count and then yielding three late-third-period goals in a 4-2 loss at Clarkson.
"Clarkson struck me as a quick-skating team, much like Colgate, while St. Lawrence seemed very physical," freshman forward Craig Adams said.
Although the two teams play differently, there are several common methods to dealing with them.
"A key to the games this weekend will be the penalty kill, especially against Clarkson," Karmanos said.
After last weekend's disappointing show of penalty-killing in which the team allowed five power-play goals against, the man-down units saw a lot of practice this week.
"The penalty-kill unit had a couple of meetings this week in regards to Clarkson's power-play because we feel that it's very important for us to shut down their power-play unit," MacDonald added.
Clarkson's potent power-play unit has been led by junior Todd White, who scored two man-advantage goals in Clarkson's win over Princeton last Friday. He then added five assists against Yale the next night, earning him the ECAC Player of the Week award.
Right now, Harvard is on a five-game losing streak and is in sixth place in the ECAC, three points above seventh-place Brown. If Harvard remains in sixth place, it will get a first-round bye for the ECAC Tournament but will play a quarterfinal series on the road.
If it drops to seventh place, however, the team will have to play a preliminary round game to determine whether it makes the quarterfinals.
With two wins this weekend, Harvard can assure itself of a first-round bye, in addition to letting the seniors leave Bright on a positive note. The 10,000 men of Harvard will definitely be looking for victory today and tomorrow.
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