It’s a simple concept. For some, it’s hard to master. But it never was an issue with Turano, and it was in his name on Friday night that Harvard made sure he wasn’t injured in vain.

“He’s one of those guys who always thinks about the team first,” Cavanagh said the next night at Dartmouth. “I talked to him after the game, and he was more concerned about how the game went than how he was doing.”

And that’s why every last player on Harvard’s roster loves playing hockey with Kenny Turano. About his only flaw is that he roots for the Yankees. (He’s the only New York fan on the entire team, save a member of the coaching staff who shall remain nameless as part of the local Yankee Fan Protection Program.)

Turano talked so much trash during the ALCS that captain and Stoneham, Mass., native Kenny Smith refused to watch games with him. He was just too obnoxious about the damn Yankees.

So, while seven of the guys were watching in one room, Turano was banished to another. All alone.

At least now he can take some solace in the fact that he won. At a time like this, recovery starts with small victories.

Still, his teammates are left to shake their heads and wonder why this happened.

“It’s hard to watch a teammate and a good friend get injured like that,” said Barlow, who took Turano’s spot in the lineup Saturday. “He’s a player that takes his job very seriously. I feel pretty badly for him, not on the injury alone but the season going forward.

“He’s got a lot of heart. You really hate to see your friend in that much pain, knowing how hard he’s worked to get to the point he was. This is tough on all of us.”

And now, all of them will be here to help him. Everyone wants to see him skate again this year. In the meantime, his blockmates will take care of him, give him rides in their cars and help him get around to classes.

They’ll do whatever they can to get him back. It goes without saying that he’ll do the same.

—Staff writer Jon Paul Morosi can be reached at morosi@fas.harvard.edu.