From Ufa, Russia, to Potsdam, N.Y., the scene is the same.

A smooth-skating forward accelerates up his opponent’s wing, waiting for a teammate’s quick feed. Once he gets it, he knows what to do with it.

The result, whether it’s a far-side wrist shot for Team USA or an overtime one-timer for the Harvard men’s hockey team, speaks for itself: Jimmy Vesey was born to score.

IN HIS BLOOD

Vesey enters the 2014-2015 season as the Crimson’s great goal-scoring hope. The 6’2” junior has led the team in goals in both of his first two collegiate seasons, displaying an uncanny ability to generate offense off the rush and get pucks on net. 

“One-on-one with a defender, he’s impossible to stop almost,” said Harvard junior co-captain Kyle Criscuolo, who will join Vesey on the team’s first line this year.

Vesey’s speed, skill, and long reach have produced memorable moments and high honors in recent years.

As a freshman, Vesey earned Ivy League Rookie of the Year honors and won a gold medal for the United States at the IIHF U20 World Championships in Russia, bolstering the team’s front line and netting a goal in the semifinal to upset Canada.

Last season, he adjusted to an enhanced role in Harvard’s offensive scheme and netted an overtime winner at Clarkson to secure the Crimson’s first three-game winning streak in over two years.

This year, he carries the expectations of a preseason first-team All-ECAC selection­—the only such honor for the Crimson.

On Saturday, Vesey will scan the stands of the Bright-Landry Hockey Center as he joins his teammates on the blue line for the first national anthem of his team’s season. He will be looking for about 10 to 20 friendly faces—cousins, aunts, and uncles—led by his father, Jim Sr., and his mother, Amy.

“They’ve sat in the same section [behind the Harvard bench] for the last two years at every home game,” Vesey says. “I always look up there during the starting lineups, national anthem and just kind of take a peek at who’s there.”

The Veseys will likely choose a different section this season, as the Crimson’s newly-renovated home facility has the team’s bench on the opposite side of the rink. Either way, the clan’s presence will remind the junior of the legacy and city he represents each night on the ice.

The name “Vesey” holds important sway in Boston hockey circles. Vesey Sr., a native of Charlestown, was a star center for Merrimack College in the 1980s and still holds the school’s all-time scoring record. After a seven-year professional career that included 15 games in the NHL, he retired in 1995 to focus on raising his two young sons, Jimmy and Nolan, with his high school sweetheart.

The two boys took after their father, who coached them from the time they could skate until the day they started high school.