Two-Game Turnaround
On the opposite side of the coin from the Crimson’s difficulties killing off penalties has been the team’s “semi-struggling” offense. Semi-struggling because the team has averaged nearly three goals a game this season.
But it also has been shutout by Brown, and held to a pair of early scores by a weak Princeton team. The primary reason is the composition of the forward lines, which have taken three major hits since a year ago.
First off, the loss of Dominic Moore ’03 and Brett Nowak ’03 took Harvard’s first and third leading scorers off the roster. Second, the loss of hard-shooting senior Kenny Turano to a broken ankle took another veteran forward out of Harvard’s lineup.
And, as luck would have it, Moore, Nowak and fourth-liner Aaron Kim ’03 all played the same position—center. To start the season, then, the Crimson only had one player, junior forward Tom Cavanagh, with recent experience manning center ice at the college level.
Mazzoleni compensated by moving junior Brendan Bernakevitch and sophomore Charlie Johnson to center, and inserting freshman Kevin Du in the role of fourth-line spark plug previously held by Kim.
This weekend, though, Mazzoleni decided to re-arrange some of his combinations. He moved Johnson up to the second line, playing alongside Bernakevitch and senior Tyler Kolarik.
Du, along with sophomore Dan Murphy and fellow freshman Steve Mandes played on the third line. And junior Andrew Lederman was situated between seniors Rob Fried and Rob Flynn on the team’s fourth line.
And the new combinations seemed to work out, as the Crimson looked sharp and coordinated on Saturday, scoring four goals against Yale.
“I thought [Johnson, Bernakevitch, and Kolarik] played well,” Mazzoleni said. “We’re trying to find that element of continuity. I liked the Du-Mandes-Murphy line, and I thought Lederman and Fried and Flynn played their role to a T—they were a big, strong physical line.”
“Maybe we stacked two [lines], I don’t know,” he continued. “But I thought we had production from all four lines in the role that we’re asking them to do. You can be very productive by going out there and playing physical and creating a pace and energy for your team, by finishing your check and playing good defense, too. And I thought they did that very well.”
While the effect that a quality checking line can have does produce a tangible impact on the game, Mazzoleni’s decision to create, in essence if not in name, two checking lines is questionable. It concentrates Harvard’s offense too tightly, creating long minutes between shifts where the Crimson’s ability to mount an offensive attack is compromised.
“We have to bring a lunch-pail mentality to the rink,” Mazzoleni said. “And if we don’t play that, we’re very beatable. We are. And it showed against Brown and against Princeton—we got outcompeted by both teams. When we bring a lunch-pail mentality will be able to play with anyone, I don’t have any question about that. But if we don’t, we’re very beatable.”
Mazzoleni believes that players like Fried, Du and Flynn give him that lunch-pail mentality and that while they may not score too many goals, they will skate hard, fast and physical. But compared with last year, when Harvard skated three offensively-skilled lines, this year’s Crimson model is coming up a bit short.
It’s a calculated risk, choosing to have two lines packed with offensively gifted players and two lines filled with younger players or fast and physical veterans that will play good defense and give the team an energy boost.
Like the team’s penalty kill, Harvard’s concentrated forward lines will be tested against BU. And with star Terrier netminder Sean Fields covering the crease, fans should have a good idea whether Mazzoleni’s emphasis on the importance of lunch-pail mentality brings big rewards or (temporary) ruin.
—Staff writer Timothy M. McDonald can be reached at tmcdonal@fas.harvard.edu.