A Fresh Crimson Tide

BOSTON – For baseball fans, October is an exhilarating month. The playoff rush has swept eight deserving teams into division or wild card championship positions. But in Boston, baseball is not the only October sport. The ice men cometh: college hockey starts its season.

While Boston College and Boston University are easily thought of as the top dogs in Beantown hockey – they combine for a total of 42 Beanpot titles out of a possible 56 – there is one team that longs to break through the B.C.-B.U. barrier.

The Beanpot is a tournament comprising of four teams – Boston College, Boston University, Harvard University and Northeastern University – who play in round-robin style. Debuting in 1952, the Beanpot is a way for Boston teams to gain bragging rights for being the best local team.

The Harvard men’s hockey team starts its season on October 31^st against Dartmouth. The Crimson finished last season in the Eastern College Athletic Conference with a 17-13-4 record and a No. 16 national ranking. Head Coach Ted Donato said each new season begins with trying to get every player on the same page, understanding how the game will be played and how to carry oneself.

“There’s a level of work and commitment on and off the ice,” Donato said in a telephone interview. “[That’s] put in place with the system stuff – understand where and when to be on the ice, special teams…in the beginning there is a lot of preparation and getting ready as quickly as possible.”

This season finds the Crimson with a majority of underclassmen; 16 of the 26 rostered players are freshmen and sophomores. But being young is not something Donato is worried about.

“We’re definitely a young team,” he said. “[But] I like the talent level that we as a team bring to the table. In order for us to have success we’re gonna have to improve throughout the year.”

Donato added that there might be some rough patches early on in the season, but as players begin to understand their roles, Harvard has a chance to be a very good team.

Senior team captain Brian McCafferty agreed that the Crimson should not be dismissed because of the team’s average age.

“It doesn’t really matter how old you are if everybody comes in and feels welcome, especially the freshmen,” the Lexington native said. “I think we got a pretty good group this year and everyone can make a difference for us. [It’s] maybe not the most numbers in older guys but we got a lot of good leadership up there and that’s going to help us out a lot, especially at the beginning. Once the first game comes, everyone’s in the same playing field.”

Last season, McCafferty placed second in scoring for Crimson defensemen, with 17 points (3-14-17). He also helped lead Harvard in ECAC Hockey in scoring defense (1.86 goals allowed per game) and penalty killing (.913, 94 for 103) in league play.

“A new goal for us is to make the new guys feel as welcome as possible and let them know that they can make a difference,” he said. “I know that when you’re a freshman coming in, sometimes kids can, you know, have concerns or questions or whatever and I think that as a senior, you can make them feel at ease and make them feel as comfortable as possible. I think that’s a new personal goal that both of us [captains] have is to kind of get everybody on the same page and start out on the right foot.”

Senior captain Jimmy Fraser said the experience that last year’s freshmen gained should definitely help in the upcoming season.

“We’re always looking to improve in every aspect of our game. We have to work as hard as we can in practice and listen to our coaching staff because they’re the brains of the operation.”

Hailing from Port Huron, Michigan, Fraser was also part of the penalty kill unit last season that led ECAC hockey in league play. He had 13 points on the season (2-11-13), tying for eighth on the team in scoring.

The new season depends on the team getting off to a quick start, Fraser said, because Ivy League rules requires teams to start more than two weeks later than other schools: a delay giving other schools more game-time experience.

“[W]e’ve always been a quick team, a fast team, a hard working team,” he said. “I think we’re going to have as much skill in all aspects of the game as we had in my four years. We’ve always been on the smaller side, but we make up for it with grit, hard work and determination. That’s pretty much been our motto in my four years.”

The Crimson has a series of goals, according to Donato, when it comes to winning games, tournaments and championships. They want to win the Ivy League championships, ECAC and NCAA championships, and the Beanpot, he said.

Last year’s Beanpot ended in a heartbreaking overtime loss to Boston College, 6-5.

“The idea is that we improve, play the best we can, and give a maximum effort,” Donato said. “At end of day if we do that, the results will be there and we can live with those results.”

Donato, a former Crimson player and captain himself, returns to lead the team as head coach for the fifth straight year. Returning to Harvard as a coach was a great opportunity, and it is very special to return to the school, he said.

“It was an opportunity to stay in the game of hockey and Harvard is, and always will be, a very special place for me. I like the challenge of balancing a tremendous education with a challenging hockey schedule, and I want to continue the tradition of Harvard having very good hockey teams.”

One of the things that attracted Donato to being a coach, he said, was the way his head coach, Bill Cleary, operated the team while Donato was still a player. Cleary led the 1989 Crimson squad, of which Donato was a part of, to an NCAA championship.

“I like to think that some guys will have a future in the game, whether that’s playing, coaching, managing…at whatever level they decide,” Donato said. “I love the sport of hockey and hopefully our guys will get better, but have fun and continue their love and passion for game.”

While Fraser said it is “kind of depressing” to be donning the Harvard uniform for the last year, he added that one of his goals is to have a great senior year and keep playing afterwards to see where hockey takes him.

“I can always fall back on education,” the psychology major said. “But I want to try and use my body while I still can before I get too old.”

McCafferty agreed, and said he would love to try and get a chance to play after college.

Both captains also said they enjoy proving to Boston hockey fans that Harvard is a competitive team, and they should not be overlooked simply because they are not Boston College or Boston University.

“People always ask you, ‘Oh you play for Harvard, isn’t that were B.U. and B.C. are?’” McCafferty said. “We always get overlooked and it’s definitely a challenge to try and get people to come to our games as opposed to those bigger games. But you know I think for us, it kind of puts a chip on your shoulder a little bit. It makes you want to work hard, especially games where we play [B.C. and B.U.]. Deep down in our hearts we know we’re just as good, and can be just as good as they are.”