It’s early in the season yet, and the Crimson has played more division games than have some of its opponents.

Still, though, it’s better to start ahead than play catch-up later in the season.

WHERE’S THE WHISTLE?

With the newfound popularity of the whistle in collegiate hockey rinks around the country, outcomes have come to hinge upon penalties as much as anything else.

In its first three contests, Harvard had averaged eight penalties and 16 minutes per game—nowhere near the top several dozen squads in that category.

Still, said Donato after his team’s 4-1 loss to Colgate, “I think we took a few that we can’t take on the road if we want to be successful.”

In particular, Crimson captain Noah Welch had accrued nine penalties during his team’s initial 0-2-1 stretch—four against Brown, two against Cornell and three against Colgate.

During the weekend’s Ivy homestand, however, the senior did not enter the sin bin once.

Against the Bulldogs, Harvard followed the senior’s lead and racked up just four penalties and killed off three of them; against Princeton, however, the Crimson amassed 10 whistles and let in four goals on seven penalty kill situations.

“I thought that our penalty kill was very much a strong suit in the first few games,” Donato said after the Tigers contest, “but they were able to find a few holes, and they did a good job.”

On the other side of the puck, the Crimson finally broke through on its power play—one which had gone 1-for-17 in the first three games—and converted six times in 18 chances for the weekend.

“We were able to get it going, and we did a good job using a lot of our options,” Donato said of his team’s play with the man-advantage, citing the important of “just in general, getting shots to the net.”

INJURY REPORT

Crimson wing Charlie Johnson, who had said he’d hoped to “get in at some point” against Yale or Princeton, did not see any action this weekend.

The junior, sidelined with an injury to the AC joint in his right shoulder, has not played since the Bears game, but he was listed day-to-day as long as two weekends ago.