That problem should finally end this season. Harvard replaces Capouch with two freshmen, bringing its total of defensemen to seven.
The stiff competition along the blueline—with seven men competing for six playing slots—should motivate all the defensemen. In addition to Welch, juniors Kenny Smith, Blair Barlow and Dave McCulloch, and sophomore Ryan Lannon will share the mantle of leadership.
Freshmen Tom Walsh and Peter Hafner will also compete for time.
Goaltending
Playing in his rookie campaign, sophomore Dov Grumet-Morris turned heads down the stretch as he secured the No. 1 goaltending position.
Harvard’s success during the second half of the season was due in large part to the outstanding play of Grumet-Morris, who survived the troubles that made for a grim 2-6-1 February and turned them into the success story that was the Crimson’s late playoff push and ECAC championship.
Entering his second year, Grumet-Morris looks to use the confidence gained from last year’s campaign and channel it into a successful full season. While Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni shuffled his goalies for much of last year, there is no question who the leader of the pack is this season.
“One of the real positives [of last season’s run] was that we got such consistent and excellent goaltending on a nightly basis, due to that fact Grumet-Morris was our No. 1 goaltender,” Mazzoleni said.
Coaching
Now in his fourth year with the Crimson, Mazzoleni has improved Harvard hockey each season.
Taking over in 1999, Mazzoleni saw the steady rise of his team in the ECAC standings, going from a sixth place finish in his first year to a third place finish two seasons ago to last year’s ECAC championship and NCAA tournament berth.
Mazzoleni and assistant coach Nate Leaman are joined this year by newcomer Sean McCann ‘94, a former Crimson captain and Hobey Baker finalist.
McCann replaces former assistant coach Ron Rolston, who departed last May for an assistant coaching position at Boston College. McCann hopes to translate his experience as a defenseman at Harvard and as a seven-year professional to this year’s Crimson team.
Volunteer coach Bruce Irving will work as the goaltending coach and run the junior varsity program.
Special Teams
With the league vowing to cut down on the clutching-and-grabbing type of hockey that has turned so many fans away from the game, special teams will play a bigger role in the coming season now that officials will be watching out more closely for obstruction.
Harvard finished sixth in the ECAC on the power play and fourth in the penalty kill in 2001-02. The Crimson will make a conscious effort to improve in both categories, especially on the penalty kill, which came as a bit of a disappointment last year after producing an abundance of shorthanded goals two seasons ago.
“We want to lead the league in shorthanded goals, maybe lead the nation,” Kolarik said. “I think we have the ability to do that. We have enough talent this year to have two solid units of guys [on the power play] who can score goals.”