Not one member of Harvard’s defensive corps will tell you that last weekend’s ECAC tournament performances—six goals allowed in two games—ranked high on the season list. But every member would likely agree with blueliner Ryan Lannon’s admission, “I’d rather have it happen last week than this coming weekend.”

With a 20-8-3 record entering the league championships, after all, the Crimson didn’t need to win out to secure a berth in the NCAA tournament.

This weekend’s NCAA regional semifinals will offer no such margin for error. One sloppy performance against New Hampshire—one defensive misstep—and the Crimson may be knocked from the tournament’s first round for the fourth straight year.

“The defense,” said captain Noah Welch, “it wasn’t good [last weekend]. We didn’t play the way we know we can play, and how we have been playing.”

Harvard allowed three goals in Friday’s semifinal against Colgate, two of which came in the last four minutes of regulation and both of which erased a one-goal Crimson lead. Harvard would win, 4-3, in double-overtime, but the next night, Cornell would manhandle the Crimson, 3-1.

One of the scores was the result of a two-on-one for which Welch took the blame, admitting that he allowed a cross-ice pass instead of shutting down the Big Red’s second skater and letting Harvard’s goaltender, Dov Grumet-Morris, take the shooter.

“Uncharacteristic,” Crimson coach Ted Donato ’91 said of the play of his defense, which had, before the two contests, allowed just 1.77 goals per game. “I expect us to bounce back.”

During Sunday’s NCAA bracket selection show on ESPN2, analyst Adam Wodon speculated that the Crimson defense had hung Grumet-Morris out to dry last weekend.

The words drew wry remarks from the Harvard skaters and coaches, who had gathered to learn their collective fate.

“That comment was correct,” Welch said, “but Adam had his Cornell jersey on under his shirt there.”

Welch was referencing Wodon’s long-time connection with the Big Red program, one which includes tours of duty in the broadcast booth and behind the keyboard.

“He loves taking jabs at us,” Welch said, “so we expected that.”

ON BIG ICE

Harvard’s matchup with New Hampshire will be played in the Mullins Center, home of the Massachusetts Minutemen in Amherst, Mass.

Mullins boasts bigger ice—200-by-95-feet, to be exact—than does the Bright Hockey Center, which is 204-by-87 feet, and Lannon says that “it changes the game a little bit, as far as having more space to create offensive opportunities.”