NCAA crown next in line for Crimson
group had played in two or three Frozen Fours before they won a national championship.
“This Harvard group is a team that comes in and has to listen to questions about how the program hasn’t won the Beanpot in a long time, and they go out and change those fortunes,” Donato added. “This is a group really driven by some great senior leadership. I expect us to come out and play well.’’
Harvard (26-5-2), a topseed for the first time since 1983, enters today’s East Regional against No. 4 Providence ( 22-11-5) at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center (4 p.m.) riding a 16-game unbeaten streak, but was not without any bumps in the road. A stretch in midJanuary that saw Harvard drop three straight to RPI, Union and Dartmouth, all on the road, served as an epiphany.
“That was a real turning point for us,’’ said cocaptain Devin Tringale of Medford. “That threegame stretch wasn’t our best hockey. We had to sit down and re-establish our team identity, and we’ve been playing really well ever since.”
Harvard might have to re-invent itself after last playing on the Olympicsize ice sheet at Lake Placid, N.Y., where it won the ECAC title last weekend, to the smaller confines of the Dunkin’ Donuts Center.
“It was a shock to us after playing in Lake Placid. There’s not a lot of room out there,’’ said winger Ted Donato, whose Crimson play in the nation’s longest rink (204 feet) at BrightLandry Center.
Harvard is undefeated on neutral sites at 4-0-0 this season while Providence, which is coming off a two-week layoff after falling at Notre Dame in the Hockey East quarterfinals, is 0-1-0 on neutral ice.
Last week, Harvard claimed its 10th ECAC championship with a 4-1 win over Cornell in Lake Placid, and PC could prove stingy as it ranks 12th in goals allowed at 2.34. But the Friars are only No. 22 in goals-per-game at 3.06. Harvard’s power play is fourth-best (26.5 percent) in the nation.