LeNeveu is quick to point that out as well.

“The style of hockey that Coach [Mike] Schafer teaches us is a very defensive game,” he said. “The fact that our whole team buys into that style of play is why we have success.”

LeNeveu went on to point out specific members of his Big Red team who have elevated him into the nation’s goaltending elite.

“It’s easy for me when you have players like Doug Murray and Travis Bell—or any number of guys on our team—just taking shots off their chest,” LeNeveu said. “They’ll do anything to get in front of a shot.”

Self-sacrifices will be key if the Big Red hopes to complete its first regular-season sweep of Harvard since the 1997-1998 season. Cornell won the Nov. 22 match-up 5-2 at Lyham Rink in LeNeveu’s first appearance against the Crimson.

“It hurt last year to lose to them in the ECAC championship game,” said LeNeveu of the Crimson’s 4-3, double overtime win in Lake Placid. “So it’s not hard to find that motivation to work hard during the week.”

But LeNeveu is said to be eying more than just the game competition. The British Columbia native will be going head-to-head against Harvard goaltender Dov Grumet-Morris, an opponent who has had similar success this year.

Grumet-Morris, who is No. 2 in the ECAC behind LeNeveu in both goals against average and save percentage, is similarly excited about playing against one of the country’s best.

“It’s a lot of fun when you can do that,” Grumet-Morris said. “It’s a challenge. A lot of the time goaltenders don’t get the personification of their competitiveness, so it’s great to be able to go against another top goaltender.”

“It’s really similar to the way two star pitchers perform,” Grumet-Morris added. “They’re not on the field at the same time and not really in direct contact with each other, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a great duel between them. [In both sports] you’re a marquee player representative of your team but you don’t come into contact with each other.”

But that won’t make the Grumet-Morris-LeNeveu encounter any less intriguing.

“There’s going to be a great flavor to the game,” Grumet-Morris said. “You work hard in practice all year, and these are the games that make it worthwhile.”

– Staff writer John P. Morosi can be reached at morosi@fas.harvard.edu.