“Jonas shot out of the blocks like a cannon,” Mazzoleni said. “He stole games for us, no doubt about it.”
Jonas, however, was a senior who had already shown flashes of his ability and had far more game experience than any of the goaltenders on this year’s roster.
Recent history actually favors the Crimson. Each of the past three years, the ECAC regular season or tournament champion has featured a first-year starting goaltender.
Hoping to lead Harvard in extending that streak are last year’s backup sophomore Will Crothers, freshman Dov Grumet-Morris and junior Ben Weiss.
Crothers is one of the most athletic and explosive players on the team. He was a highly-touted prospect out of the Canadian junior leagues whom Mazzoleni recruited as the team’s goaltender of the future. Mazzoleni hopes Crothers’s year of experience watching Jonas and hard training over the summer will pay off.
Crothers was expected to see significant ice time last year, but Jonas was so dominant that Mazzoleni found it difficult to bench Jonas. In all, Crothers played only four periods of hockey, although he did record an early-season 5-3 win over Brown.
Although not as highly-recruited as Crothers, Grumet-Morris is a big goaltender who should make an impact on the team this year. Thus far, he has pushed Crothers hard in practice and still has a chance to start.
Weiss is the longshot of the group—he has yet to see the ice in his Harvard career.
For now, Crothers will be the starter. However, Mazzoleni has not decided on a permanent starter and stressed that Grumet-Morris and maybe even Weiss will play plenty of minutes.
Outlook
Mazzoleni’s rebuilding program shows no signs of slowing this season. On paper, the Crimson match up at the skating positions with virtually any team in the country, and it is almost certainly the most talented team in the ECAC.
Unfortunately, that analysis ignores Harvard’s collective lack of playing experience, especially on the blueline and even more acutely in goal.
The defense should no longer surrender 30-40 shots on goal each game, but it also won’t have the ECAC goaltender of the year behind it.
On the other hand, Harvard is so talented that it doesn’t need a repeat of Jonas’s incredible performance to improve over last year.
If either Crothers or Grumet-Morris can provide a steady presence in goal, Harvard could be a force on the ice.
Even then, the team may struggle early in the season as the freshmen and sophomores continue to improve. But come March, a more experienced Harvard team might just meet the high national expectations set for it.
“I think we can be that eighth-ranked team in the country,” Kolarik said.