“Vermont can score goals on the powerplay,” Mazzoleni said. “You can control Vermont when they’re not on the powerplay.”

In the matchup of powerplay versus penalty kill, the Crimson does hold an edge. While Vermont has the third best team in the ECAC with the man-advantage, Harvard can answer that with the third best penalty kill unit. The Catamounts are not so lucky when one of their own is in the box—they are last in the conference in penalty killing.

Strategy aside, Mazzoleni and his players felt the bye week helped the team heal nagging injuries before the playoff run. Although sophomore winger Brendan Bernakevitch is questionable to play this weekend, junior forward Tyler Kolarik is set to resume his place on the top forward line. Kolarik’s temporary fill in, sophomore Rob Flynn, will drop down to the second line with junior Tim Pettit and sophomore Tom Cavanagh.

And even though the Crimson’s hottest line from last year’s playoffs (Pettit-Cavanagh-Bernakevtich) is temporarily decommissioned, Mazzoleni said he is relying upon Grumet-Morris to continue the stellar play that began at the start of the ECAC Tournament a year ago and helped to fuel Harvard’s playoff run.

It’s a tried and true hockey axiom that states a hot goaltender can take a team on his back and carry them through the playoffs. If that is the case, the reverse must be true as well.

“If your goaltender is not on his game, you’re not going anywhere in the playoffs,” Mazzoleni said. “Our thought is we have a guy back there [in Dov] who is tournament tested.”

And based on that litmus test, Harvard looks to have the balance to again make a run through the ECAC playoffs.

—Staff writer Timothy M. McDonald can be reached at tmcdonal@fas.harvard.edu.