One of the biggest concerns for the Crimson entering the semifinal was the strong play of Dartmouth’s top line.

With freshmen Hugh Jessiman and Mike Ouellette and sophomore Lee Stempniak, that line is composed entirely of 30-plus point scorers. Stempniak and Jessiman stand amongst the ECAC scoring leaders with 49 and 46 points, respectively.

Add to those numbers the speed of Stempniak and Ouellette and the size (6’5) of Jessiman, and the Big Green’s first line presents a serious challenge to opposing teams.

Because that trio accounts for so much of Dartmouth’s offense, Mazzoleni wanted to try to contain it with his own top line, the one he also believes plays the best defense.

“We had to have that matchup,” Mazzoleni said. “[Senior] Brett [Nowak] is [one of] our two best center icemen, and [junior] Dennis Packard and [sophomore] Robbie Flynn are big and strong on the wall and they can handle those type of people.”

After being contained for most of the game, Dartmouth’s powerful trio did manage to score the team’s second goal—although it came when the Novak line wasn’t on the ice.

“I thought our [first-line kids] played real well,” Dartmouth coach Bob Gaudet said. “I wasn’t concerned about the match.”

Gaudet was more concerned with Harvard’s defensive pairings than its defensive forward line. The Crimson’s top blue-line duo—sophomore Noah Welch and freshman Peter Hafner—has the size and speed to match up with Jessiman and company.

“Hafner and Welch—they’re both pretty good,” Gaudet said. “Noah masks a lot of deficiencies others have on the ice.”

And holding Dartmouth’s talented young forwards to one goal is a pretty good start to the ECAC Championship weekend.