Junior goaltender DOV GRUMET-MORRIS (30), flanked by sophomore defenseman PETER HAFNER (3) and junior blueliner NOAH WELCH (5), suffered at the hands of his own defense, as all four Engineer goals were scored off defensive miscues.

TROY, N.Y.—A new year brought the same old story for the Harvard men’s hockey team, as the Crimson struggled for consistency in its first games of 2004.

Friday night seemed to hold the promise of good things to come, as Harvard overcame a 2-0 deficit and scored three goals in the third period to beat Union and former assistant coach Nate Leaman.

But asked after the exciting win over Union what he thought about his team, Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni hesitated.

“We’ve got to do it tomorrow,” he said. “We’ve had games like this. We’ve got to put a streak together if we’re going to have a chance.”

The Crimson (7-8-2, 5-6-1 ECAC) could not put together any sort of streak, falling the next night to Rensselaer in Troy, N.Y.

RPI 4, Harvard 1

The Crimson struggled on offense and defensive miscues led directly to all four RPI goals, as the Engineers (9-8-2, 4-3-1) controlled the Crimson throughout the game and capitalized on key turnovers deep in the Harvard zone.

The scoring started with RPI taking advantage of a turnover by sophomore defenseman Peter Hafner. The turnover came as Hafner was robbed of the puck behind the Crimson net by Rensselaer’s Cody Wojdyla. Wojdyla came off the boards and fed a pass into the middle of the ice that trickled off of Kirk MacDonald’s stick and onto the blade of Conrad Barnes. Barnes got off a quick shot that Harvard junior goaltender Dov Grumet-Morris could not track down, and the Engineers had a 1-0 lead at 6:16 of the first.

Hafner was again involved in an RPI goal, this time during a power play at the start of the second period. Harvard junior defenseman Ryan Lannon was in the box for hooking at 1:46 of the second period and RPI set up its power play in the Harvard zone. Engineer co-captain Scott Basiuk directed a shot on net that Grumet-Morris easily stopped. He knocked the puck to his right in front of Hafner, but Hafner’s attempted clear went straight into Kevin Croxton, who shot the puck past Grumet-Morris to give the Engineers the two-goal edge.

RPI coach Dan Fridgen was pleased with his team’s effort, in particular the aggressive forecheck that resulted in his team’s first and fourth goals.

“We were just a little sharper…getting pucks to the net,” Fridgen said. “We finally got a couple of scrappy goals which we haven’t done in the last three games.”

The Crimson’s only goal of the night came on a power play in the second period, when Mazzoleni sent his second power-play unit out to start the advantage.

Sophomore forward Dan Murphy’s second goal of the season cut the Engineer lead to 2-1.

The play started when freshman forward Kevin Du, parked on Rensselaer goaltender Nathan Marsters’ doorstep, received a pass from sophomore Charlie Johnson.

“Kevin Du made a nice play to pass it to [senior forward Dennis] Packard and he got it on net and I was lucky enough to be where the rebound was,” Murphy said.