Junior defenseman NOAH WELCH, who stands 6’4 and weighs 212 pounds, sent 6’0, 195-pound Rensselaer freshman winger Kevin Broad crashing into his own bench Saturday night.

SCHENECTADY, N.Y.—Nate Leaman either coached or recruited everyone on the current Harvard roster during his four-year stay as an assistant coach. Friday night, he watched those players from the other bench for the first time.

Leaman, who left Harvard during the offseason to become head coach at Union, nearly got the better of his old team before his Dutchmen allowed three goals in a frenzied third period and fell at home, 3-2.

“There were a lot of emotions in the game,” said Leaman, who keeps in touch with Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni and some Crimson players.

Despite Harvard’s mediocre record this season, Leaman was quick to praise his former team—not surprising, considering it peppered Union goalie Kris Mayotte with 50 shots. Leaman called Harvard the “best faceoff team” and “quickest team” the Dutchmen had played all year

“I saw the same guys out there, making plays,” Leaman said. “In some ways, that didn’t surprise me…They’re probably the strongest team in the league.

“They were better on faceoffs than I remembered. They were never that good when I was there.”

Leaman was a major component of Harvard’s back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances. Last year, he ran both special teams, worked with forwards and coordinated recruiting.

This season, those responsibilities have been divided between assistants Sean McCann ’94 and Gene Reilly. McCann coordinates the power play and works with defensemen. Reilly is the primary recruiter and took over Leaman’s duties with forwards and the penalty kill.

Reilly’s penalty kill focuses on cutting down passing lanes, consistent with tactics he learned while coaching professional hockey the last two seasons. Last year, the Harvard penalty kill was the ECAC’s fourth-best (155-for-185, 83.8 percent). So far this season, it is 70-for-88 (79.5 percent), and No. 8 in the league.

Meanwhile, McCann began the season using the same power-play alignment Leaman used last year, with one man at the point, one on top of each circle and one in each corner. But after a 7-for-41 (17.1 percent) performance in the season’s first 10 games, McCann switched to a formation with two point men and three players down low, including one right in front of the goaltender.

Harvard has gone 3-for-29 (10.3 percent) on the power play since, including 0-for-7 against Union and 1-for-4 in Saturday’s loss at Rensselaer.

Against the Crimson’s first unit, Leaman said the Dutchmen tried to stay in the shooting lanes of point men Noah Welch and Tim Pettit—a tactic teams have used successfully all year.

Still, Leaman thought Harvard’s power play generated some chances—as evidenced by its 14 shots on goal.

“I think they did a good job of finding seams,” he said, “even some backdoor seams.”

Still, Harvard’s power play is tied for second-worst in the league (14.3 percent). Last season, the Crimson power play was a league-leading 37-for-156 (23.7 percent). The year before that, with then-assistant coach Ron Rolston running it, Harvard had the league’s third-best power play (28-for-136, 20.6 percent).