Harvard’s poor performances have often been blamed a relatively late exam schedule that causes the Beanpot to fall just a few games into the resumption of play after weeks of break.
In the last six years, for example, the Crimson posted just a 2-8-2 record post-exams, with rustiness and a loss of focus fingered as the likely culprits.
Harvard skaters and coaches have openly declared that 2-8-2 mark the enemy this time around, and four straight wins since exam-break—by a collective margin of 22-5—speak to a new and disciplined Crimson attitude and a clearer focus.
Though Harvard is one of only five teams to earn NCAA Tournament berths for the last three years, two came via postseason runs rather than stellar regular seasons. But at 14-5-2 (11-4-1 ECAC), this year’s Crimson squad has only improved with time.
Said York of the team, one that has already beaten both Boston College and Boston University, “they’ve been to the national tournament three years in a row, so they were good. But this year, they’re better than that.”
Rookie Crimson coach Ted Donato ’91, who was a member of Harvard’s 1989 team that won both the Beanpot and the national championship, said that he hopes his charges will now learn “the joy of winning the Beanpot.”
Donato, who hails from Dedham, spent his early days at Catholic Memorial—the same high school Parker attended.
It’s a small world, after all, the college hockey circuit in Boston. A quick glance through the roster of any of the four teams will offer recurrences of St. Sebastian’s, Cushing Academy, and the like.
Harvard junior Tom Walsh grew up in Arlington, and in 1974, his uncle, Ed, was the first recipient of the Eberly Award for the goaltender with the best save percentage. The elder Walsh played for Boston University, and the younger explains that the dream of playing for a Beanpot shaped, in large part, his college decision.
Crimson forward Rob Flynn, who calls Canton, Mass. home, said, “to win it would be something real special.”
It is a title the entire Harvard squad would like to win, one that would return the local bragging rights to a school that has not always held them. But for the local products, the Beanpot is something more. And for the local seniors, tonight is the first step in one last chance.
“This is it,” Welch said definitively. “The Beanpot is it. It’s the championship I want to win.”
—Staff writer Rebecca A. Seesel can be reached at seesel@fas.harvard.edu.