The Class of 2000 began its men's hockey career by losing at Cornell in the ECAC Quarterfinals. This past March, the senior class patrolled the ice for the last time in the fabled Crimson at the horror house in Ithaca.

Some would judge this a fitting close to a disappointing chapter in Harvard hockey history, but in reality the 1999-2000 Crimson--led by the senior class--laid the foundation for the dawn of a bright future.

In its first year under Coach Mark Mazzoleni, Harvard (11-17-2, 9-10-2 ECAC) finished tied with Princeton for sixth place in the ECAC, but the Tigers earned the higher seed with the tiebreaker. The Crimson played some of its best hockey of the past couple of years down the stretch before getting edged by Cornell in the first round, losing both games, 4-3, in a best-of-three series.

Despite finishing behind both Cornell and Princeton in the ECAC standings, Harvard won the Ivy League Championship.

"The season was a success in that we transitioned well to a new staff and system," captain Trevor Allman said. "We would have liked to have gone farther, but an Ivy title is still quite a rewarding accomplishment."

The Mazzoleni era began with a bang.

Harvard roared into first place at the start of the season, winning four of its first five games, including a whopping weekend home sweep over Dartmouth and soon-to-be-disgraced Vermont, 7-2 and 6-3, respectively.

But the real highlight of its opening run came on Nov. 13 when senior goaltender J.R. Prestifilippo made 33 saves and senior winger Brett Chodorow scored on the power play at 12:08 of the second period to give Harvard a 2-1 win over Cornell at a momentarily humbled Lynah Rink.

The Crimson also caught a glimpse of its future in the first goal of that game when freshman winger Brett Nowak scored his third goal of the season on assists from the brothers Moore--captain-elect Steve, the Crimson's leading scorer, and freshman sensation Dominic, who led the team with 12 goals.

But the good times came to a crashing halt as Harvard would win just one more game in 1999, a 5-1 victory over Union on Dec. 4. A loss to Brown on Nov. 27 marked the Bears' first victory of the year.

The Crimson then rang in the new millennium with a 3-2 win over Yale at Bright, but Harvard would not win another ECAC game until Feb. 25 at Princeton. It did not win another game at all until the consolation game of the Beanpot Tournament, a 3-1 win over Northeastern.

Harvard lost to eventual-champion Boston University, 4-0, in the first round.

That Beanpot win was the first for Prestifilippo and only the second for the seniors. In 1998, Harvard stunned Boston College in the opening round before losing a 2-1 overtime heartbreaker to Chris Drury's Terriers in the finals. Backup Oliver Jonas started against the Eagles, however, as Prestifilippo was still recovering from mononucleosis.

Prestifilippo had a magnificent final season to conclude a brilliant Harvard career. "Presto" had a sterling 2.86 goals-against average and backboned Harvard's big turnaround at the end of the year.

"It was a pure pleasure to have the opportunity to coach Prestifilippo," Mazzoleni said.