Guelph 2 Harvard 6 (last weekend's game)

Anne and I were able to attend the Crimson-Gryphons game at Harvard last Saturday night, and I wanted to just quickly share a few comments about the game (Box score at [www.uscho.com]).

Harvard did not look nearly as rusty as I was expecting. Though they didn't score in the first period, the passing was very crisp and most of the period was spent in the Gryphs' defensive zone (as was most of the game). For the rare transitional elements for the game, it seemed that Harvard would always be able to find someone on the Gryphs blueline and actually get the puck to them (unlike Guelph); this generated a number of good odd-man rushes for Harvard. Strong Harvard forechecking kept the puck inside the blueline for most of the game, but did generate a one-on-none for the Gryphs (on a Harvard turnover) at the outset of the second and allowed them to get a goal. This seemed to give the Gryphs some momentum, as they scored again about two and a half minutes later (I enjoyed thinking of the pattern in Dov's save percentage for the night: 1.000, 1.000, 1.000, .750, .600, .667, .714, .750). This also seemed to wake Harvard up... from that point forward they really dominated the game.

The Crimson certainly got plenty of chances (SOG for first period: Harvard 21, Gryphs 3 (54 to 13 for the game)), but the Gryphs goalie (Andrew Gibson) was outstanding. I am pretty sure the people in the section next to us (on the goal-line) were his parents, as his "dad" (if I am correct in that guess) took plenty of pictures of him in goal with the smallest digital camera I have ever seen ("stop it, you are embarrassing me" and must have yelled "Nice work Gibby" about three times as often as "Lets go Gryphs". Sadly "Gibby" was not as strong against the powerplay, with the first pair of Harvard goals scored on the powerplay.

The Harvard players were definitely larger, with most of them 6-1 or more. Most of the Guelph players, according to the roster, are 6-0 or smaller. The size difference did not really seem to affect the game that much, however, and the Gryphs certainly seemed ready to dish out some hits.

Probably the only thing that prevented this game from degenerating into violence was that the reffing was pretty tight. It certainly felt during the game like the ref expected the (getting frustrated) Gryphs to start playing rougher, and there were a total of 8 penalties for 24 minutes called against them. This certainly favored Harvard, with 5 penalties for only 10 minutes, and appropriately so as they didn't get sucked in by Guelph's bad temper.

Other notes on Harvard players:
- We saw a lot of the ones you might expect... Moore and Kolarik (who each had one goal on the night) saw a lot of ice-time in the first couple of periods.

- There are very few repeated names in the Box score for Harvard. Each goal was scored by a different player, suggesting better depth on the team than in the past.

- I can't tell you much of anything about the Harvard defense because they didn't really have to play defense in the game.

- Dov didn't look like he really warmed up. He stopped three pucks in the first period, then let in the first two shots he faced in the second. Incidentally. Dov's jersey read just "Morris" on the back. I thought last year it said "Grumet-Morris", but perhaps I am mistaken.

- Harvard put in their other dressed goalie, John Daigneau (a frosh, wearing the #1 jersey), for the final period... He stopped all 5 shots he faced (I won't list the pattern of his save percentage), but we were not really close enough to his end of the ice to judge the quality of the shots he faced. Harvard used a time-out at the outset of the period to allow themselves time to warm him up.

- Aaron Kim (Sr., F.) seemed to have more "presence" on the ice this year. Part of that might have been more ice-time, but I think his play may also be more noticeable.

- I miss the elf.

I am going to close with a question: One of the Guelph players, Benjamin Pilon, played previously for the Guelph Storm (OHL, I think). I was under the impression that the Storm were a farm team for someone, and paid their players... do Canadian colleges have different eligibility rules?

Oh, and a final comment: for a team expected to be strong this year, and even though the game was free, I would not say that the rink was "crowded". I think Anne and I pretty much had the section we sat in to ourselves. No such thing as the Crimson Faithful, I guess.


LGR!

Yes, Canadian colleges have different eligibility rules. At one time grad students could play. Maybe that's changed. Seems to me Gibson played at Northeastern for a while. Kim has a reputation as a goon.

You are right. Dov's sweater said "Grumet-Morris" at Placid last year. I remember, because I remember some of the faithful cheering "hyyyyyphen!"

JH

I guess the cheer "your mom called and she said...you SUCK!" worked. She was so embarrassed, she disowned him. Or at least told him to take her name off his jersey. Or maybe his dad, whichever.