2008-09 Crimson Schedule Honors Tradition

Photo by Steve Babineau

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The 2008-09 Harvard men's hockey team returns to its tradition of kicking off season the against an Ivy League opponent and ends the regular season with a rematch of last season's ECAC Hockey championship game. In between, the Crimson plays its usual challenging league schedule and a non-conference slate that features the 57th Beanpot tournament and a trip to Madison, Wis., for the Badger Hockey Showdown.

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Harvard's schedule also includes three consecutive games against defending-national-champion Boston College (Nov.  28 in Chestnut Hill, Mass.) and against North Dakota, the Eagles' 2008 NCAA semifinal opponent (Dec. 5-6 at Bright Hockey Center). Those games are among as many as 10 the Crimson will play against teams that finished last season ranked in the national top 20. North Dakota was ranked third in the final USCHO.com/CSTV poll, followed by Harvard opponents BC (No. 7), Clarkson (No. 11), Princeton (No. 13) and Boston University (No. 15) and possible opponent Wisconsin (No. 17).

A week after an exhibition against Québec-Trois Rivières, the Crimson opens the season against an Ivy League opponent for the 27th time in the last 29 years as it hosts Dartmouth on Halloween. Harvard's only non-Ivy openers since 1979 came in 1991 at Union (a 7-5 win) and last season at Clarkson (a 3-1 loss). The Crimson begins November by playing an exhibition against the U.S. National Under-18 Team for the second year in a row.

Looking for its second straight final berth and 11th overall title, the Crimson opens the Beanpot Feb. 2 against Boston University. Harvard will face BC or Northeastern in the second round. The Crimson's other non-conference games come in the Badger Hockey Showdown Dec. 28-29. In the opening round, Harvard takes on Lake Superior State for the first time since the 1994 NCAA tournament. The Crimson will meet host Wisconsin or Alabama-Huntsville in the championship or consolation game. It is Harvard's third appearance in the tournament, having placed third in 1997 and 2002.

The Crimson meets Princeton, its foe in the 2008 ECAC Hockey final, Jan. 3 in New Jersey and in the regular-season finale Feb. 28 at Bright. Other highlights of the ECAC Hockey calendar include an early home-and-home series against Rensselaer, Nov. 4 at home and Nov. 7 in Troy, N.Y., and two games against each of Harvard's fiercest Ivy rivals, Nov. 21 and Feb. 14 against Cornell and Jan. 10 and Feb. 6 against Yale.

The second games against the Tigers and Big Red are part of an imposing six-game stretch to close the regular season following the Beanpot. Harvard plays home games against each of its three fellow 2008 ECAC Hockey semifinalists (Colgate, Cornell and Princeton), visits each of the league's last two regular-season champions (St. Lawrence and Clarkson) and hosts a rematch of last year's ECAC quarterfinal series against Quinnipiac.

Harvard looks to regain the Whitelaw Cup when the Bank of America ECAC Hockey Championship begins March 6. The Crimson has played in six of the last seven title games and is 24-7 in those seven tournaments.

The Crimson looks to get back to the NCAA Championship for the sixth time in eight seasons. Harvard has made 21 appearances in the tournament, which begins with regionals March 27-29 and wraps up with the Frozen Four April 9 and 11 in Washington, D.C. Harvard has made 12 appearances in the NCAA Frozen Four.