You asked for it!
Let's start from the back end.
Goaltending: Ernst was average. He made a couple nice saves and let in a couple bad goals. Two of the goals wouldn't have been stopped by most at this level, but Cristcuolo's and Donato's should have been stopped in my opinion. I still haven't seen anything that leads me to believe Ernst should be a starter on a D-1 team, but Steel didn't play any better on Friday, so whatever. Maybe give Maher a shot at some point?
Defense: same story as Friday night - the vets looked unimpressive while the freshmen showed some good instincts and puck-moving abilities, while still succumbing to some rookie mistakes. Gottlieb in particular was adept at generating offense and contributing to the cycle game. I didn't have a chance to check the live stats on CHN, which is the only place I know of that records possession data, but I would guess that shot attempts were fairly even in this game. There were stretches where we had them hemmed in their own zone and vice versa, and Gottlieb was great at keeping the puck in play. Pfeil had a horrendous game - turnovers, bad positioning, getting repeatedly torched by Vesey, et al.
Forwards: Harvard did a truly exceptional job at shutting down lanes. They kept the puck to the outside, forcing us to play the cycle game and keeping us out of the slot. As I stated above, it felt to me like possession was fairly even, but scoring chances were greatly in Harvard's favor because we couldn't get the puck in any dangerous areas and they waltzed through our zone with ease. The fourth line was the only line that got anything going, which is both encouraging and concerning - it's good to have depth, but why couldn't our top six players dominate any shifts in the same fashion? The fourth line routinely went up against Harvard's top six, so matchups weren't - or shouldn't have been - an issue.
I maintain that Max Willman will eventually be a star at this level. He was one of the fastest players on the ice, and that's taking into account that Harvard is probably the fastest team I can ever remember watching in person. We have some good speed in our lineup, so against some of the slower ECAC teams (RPI, Cornell, Clarkson, Princeton) we should be able to have more control over the pace of the game. With that said, if a team can skate with us, they have a very good shot at beating us since our defensive play is so...um...let's call it "adventurous."
TL;DR: we need a dependable goalie and we need our veteran defensemen to be better. The offense should consistently be able to put up some goals this year, but our defense and goaltending is a mess at this point. The freshmen D-men are promising, but they can be defensively deficient and are error-prone which is to be expected this early in their careers.
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