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LAKE PLACID, N.Y.—Kyle Criscuolo watches as a Harvard stick knocks away Colgate’s final shot attempt. Behind him, there’s jubilation—the Crimson men’s ice hockey team (21-12-3, 11-8-3 ECAC) has just earned its first conference championship since 2006. Fourth-year goaltender Steve Michalek extends his arms towards the skies. Several others do the same. But until the final horn sounds, Criscuolo’s eyes are on the puck.

CAPTAIN CRISCO

At its annual banquet last April, Harvard made an announcement that broke from tradition. Coming off its second consecutive 10-win season, one that saw the Crimson finish third to last in the conference, Harvard took a different approach when appointing its new leadership. For the first time in almost 70 years, the Crimson elected to look beyond its pool of seniors to find a co-captain.

Criscuolo, a Southampton, N.J., native who logged 20 points his sophomore season, became the guy for the job. Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91 gave the then-second-year forward his vote of confidence, and come Saturday, that vote paid dividends.

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The Crimson got everything it could ask for out of its co-captain. While junior forward Jimmy Vesey made headlines for his ECAC record-tying eighth goal of the tournament in the first period, Criscuolo made the history happen.

With Colgate defenseman Kevin Lough facing the back boards and the puck on his stick, Criscuolo came barreling in. The co-captain delivered a hit on Lough that sent the defenseman flying, enabling the junior to gain possession of the puck. A few passes through the attacking zone later, it was Criscuolo who forced a shot on Finn from the edge of the crease to produce Vesey’s rebound opportunity.

One period later, with the Crimson up 3-1, Criscuolo continued to cause problems for the Raiders. Michalek got his body on a tipped Spiro Goulakos shot from in close, but the puck escaped him, giving Colgate forward Emilio Audi a prime opportunity inside the crease to punch it home.

But in came Criscuolo. With the Raiders primed to cut their deficit in half, the junior got the puck out of the danger zone with one swipe of his stick, even initiating a two-on-one attack the other way seconds later.

Nonetheless, the co-captain won’t take all the credit for himself.

“There’s a lot of leaders that are on this team,” Criscuolo said. “It’s an honor to be the captain, but I think a lot of the other guys deserve some credit for that.”

Acknowledging the leaders without “C’s” on their chests, Criscuolo pointed to the veterans of the Crimson squad—the ones that have endured their share of tribulations over the course of their Harvard tenures, including two in particular.

PAT’S BACK

When Patrick McNally held the puck near his own goal in Ithaca back in January, he couldn’t have been thinking too far ahead. But when a Cornell skater got tangled up with the blue-liner’s leg, that all changed.