Of course, the athletics department’s vans weren’t alone in their suffering, nor were Ciavaglia and Vukonich.

On Mondays, the Crimson would end practice with a lighthearted scrimmage, in which the goaltenders would move up to forward and an unlucky pair of skaters would play between the pipes. With their inexperienced teammates in net, most would gingerly shoot low and opt for finesse over power.

But not Donato.

“Teddy would always get such a kick out of shooting the puck high on the regular goalies and even the usual goalies,” MacDonald says. “He just thought that was the funniest thing going. He’d always be shooting at the goalies. I think Chuckie Hughes could tell about 40 stories about Teddy hitting him in the head with the puck.”

In fact, so could current sophomore Justin Tobe, off whose facemask Donato plunked one of his shots earlier this season.

“I think the nice thing about Teddy is that he’s the same person and has remained the same person he was while he was at Harvard,” Sneddon says. “He’s passionate about college hockey, he cares about everybody surrounding the program…and the success he’s had in the national hockey league hasn’t changed one bit. And I think that speaks volumes of him.”

—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.