On a warm October afternoon, Harvard hockey captain Brad Konik sat at a small table outside Au Bon Pain. His team had not yet played a game that season, but Konik's confidence was obvious.

"I feel better about this team than I have ever felt about any team," Konik said.

That was a particularly brazen comment considering that the Crimson was not only coming off a disappointing 14-14-2 season, but was also facing the loss of its top scorer, Steve Martins '95.

With eight freshmen leading the charge, most Crimson followers were ready to accept the 1995-96 campaign as a rebuilding year--but not Konik and definitely not the team.

From the Start

In the beginning, things started off in great fashion for Harvard as it exploded offensively in the first regular season game against Brown in a 7-2 rout. Konik led the way with a goal and three assists, while freshman Craig Adams chipped in with two goals.

In just the next weekend, however, the bitter winds of New York weren't so kind to the Crimson.

Although it battled to a respectable 2-2 tie with Colgate, Harvard appeared intimidated and sluggish the next day when it dropped its first game of the year, 5-3, to Cornell.

For the next month, Harvard alternated wins and losses in numerous close contests. Not only were 10 of its next 19 games decided by one or two goals, but Harvard also was involved in three overtime setbacks. Except for an embarrassing 7-3 defeat at the hands of St. Lawrence in early December, Harvard was holding its own in the hot ECAC race.

The key to the Crimson attack was the superb senior trio of Konik, Tommy Holmes and Kirk Nielsen. Konik proved worthy of the "C" on his jersey as he was leading the team in every respect. When he was not scoring himself (nine goals), Harvard's 100th captain was the key set-up man with a team-high 12 assists.

Holmes was a dominating force on the penalty-killing unit as he figured into five of the team's seven shorthanded goals.

Just when things were looking good and Bright Hockey Center was starting to attract more fans, however, the team ran directly into its first roadblock--the Mariucci Tournament in Minnesota at the end of December. It was bad enough for Harvard to drop its first game to the nationally-ranked University of Minnesota (5-2), but Harvard hit a low when it was thrashed by the University of New Hampshire in the consolation match, 8-3.

Returning home was no picnic either as the team dropped another two games to ECAC foes, Vermont and Dartmouth. After the disturbing 2-1 loss to the dead-last Big Green, there wasn't much to say for the Crimson.

"The seniors--they carried us a long, long time," Harvard coach Ronn Tomassoni said. "They were the majority of our offense. You got to have more than one line to be effective, however."

The Crimson bounced back with four straight wins against Rensselaer and Union, and things started to look a little brighter. But then came the carnage.