CHESTNUT HILL, Mass.—Boston College assistant coach Ron Rolston looked across the ice last night at Conte Forum and saw a number of familiar faces. Sitting along the opposing team’s bench were a number of the players that Rolston recruited and developed during his tenure as an assistant coach for the Crimson.

Rolston has been away from Cambridge for almost two years now, having departed after Harvard’s surprise win in the 2002 ECAC Tournament and its NCAA tournament berth to take an assistant coach’s position with the Eagles. And despite having played against his former team once before, the Harvard-BC contests are still a little more important than other games.

“It’s tough on the other side of the ice seeing a lot of guys who were there when you were coaching,” he said.

Most of the current juniors and seniors were recruited by Rolston, and all played for him during the 2001-2002 season. Among the players that Rolston helped recruit for the Crimson are junior all-American Noah Welch, assistant captain Tyler Kolarik, and junior netminder Dov Grumet-Morris. And Rolston has fond memories of his time in Cambridge, and the players he worked with.

“It’s good to see those guys out there,” he said.

Rolston was particularly impressed with the goaltending of Grumet-Morris and the defensive play of Welch.

“We tried to keep track of [Welch’s] shifts,” Rolston said. “It seemed like he was out there every other shift, and some of those shifts were a minute and a half long.”

Rolston went on to say that if Welch continues to develop, he expects to see him in the NHL some day soon. And he was similarly optimistic about Harvard’s own chances for improvement, despite the team’s poor start.

“They’re a good hockey team,” he said. “They’ll learn a lot from their lessons. They’ve had a real tough schedule early on, and I think they’re going to have a good second half.”

M*A*S*H

After dressing his only 20 healthy players with varsity experience Saturday night at Cornell, Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni again had his hand forced by injuries last night.

In addition to senior Kenny Turano, who is out for at least two more months after ankle surgery, defensemen Dylan Reese (back) and Dave McCulloch (ankle) were again out of the lineup—Reese for the fifth straight game and McCulloch for the fourth. (Reese could return as soon as Harvard’s next game, on Saturday against Massachusetts.)

But instead of dressing senior forward Blair Barlow as a defenseman—as he did in both games last weekend —Mazzoleni opted to skate five backliners and 13 forwards (including Barlow).

He nearly had to play four defensemen, but junior Ryan Lannon played despite a deep cut on his elbow that caused some to advise him not to dress.

“He looked at our defensive corps and saw that we’d only have four,” Mazzoleni said, “so he sucked it up and played.”