Aside from a disappointing performance by Harvard, Saturday night’s season opener against Brown was what one would expect from a matchup of the ECAC’s top returning goaltenders: the team with the better special teams performance won. The Bears took four penalties (to Harvard’s seven) and scored one power play goal (to Harvard’s zero), emerging with a 2-0 win.

More important than the number of penalties, though, was Brown’s timing. Twice in the second period, Harvard put itself on the wrong end of a five-on-three. The result? The second Bears goal, and only three Harvard shots on net in the period.

“You shoot yourself in the foot when you go in the box, and you shoot both feet off when you go two men down,” Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni said. “We dodged one bullet, but we didn’t dodge the second one.”

The Crimson penalty kill, coordinated by new assistant coach Gene Reilly, was adequate, limiting Brown to 10 shots in 8:41, but the extended special teams workload left several of the Harvard’s key players without enough left in their tanks to mount a third-period comeback.

“[Brown] plays their game very, very well, and if you get down to a team like that, it’s a difficult to come back because they play so well defensively,” Mazzoleni said.

A big reason the Bears held the lead was their disciplined play. After they went up 2-0 on Cory Caouette’s five-on-three goal with about two minutes left in the second, they took only one penalty: an elbowing call on Vince Macri early in the third period.

On that power play, Harvard had one shot on goal. For the game, the Crimson had three shots on goal in a full six minutes on the man advantage.

“We got outworked, collectively, as a five-man unit by their four-man unit—consistently,” Crimson assistant captain Tyler Kolarik said. “There were definitely some lost opportunities.”

Saturday’s game marked the first time—including exhibitions—that the first power play group of Kolarik, junior Tom Cavanagh, senior Tim Pettit, sophomore Charlie Johnson and junior point man Noah Welch skated together in game conditions.

Harvard’s first power play of the day, late in the first period, was characterized by uncertain passing and produced no shots on net. It began with Johnson losing control as he tried to work into the slot, and ended with senior defenseman Dave McCulloch fanning at the point. In between, Pettit fired over the cage when he had an open look and Cavanagh had his bid from the right circle blocked.

“I just think it comes down to a matter of execution,” Kolarik said. “I don’t think it fit together tonight, and that’s not to say it won’t fit together another night. I think this power play is going to be a great power play. It’s just a matter of getting the kinks out, and having more effort.”

Saturday in Suits

Junior Andrew Lederman, sophomore James Cleary and freshmen Ryan Maki and Steve Mandes were scratched from the lineup. Junior defenseman Ryan Lannon also missed the game because of the one-game suspension that went along with a butt-ending/game disqualification call against Boston University in last year’s NCAA tournament. As arguably the team’s top defensive defenseman, he will almost certainly return to the lineup this weekend, meaning one of Saturday’s blue-liners will be the odd man out.

Melrose Place

McCulloch was whistled for cross-checking at 4:47 of the second period, helping to set up Brown’s first (unsuccessful) five-on-three power play. The penalty minutes were the 217th and 218th of his Harvard career, leaving him 83 minutes—or, seven more minutes than he had last season—shy of breaking the school record for career penalty minutes, set by lovable ruffian Kevan Melrose ’90. Assistant coach Sean McCann ’94 (259 minutes) is the second-most penalized member of Harvard’s sin bin club.