Clarkson Six Nips Crimson in Overtime, 4-3

Harvard's hockey squad twice overcame one-goal Clarkson leads in last night's fray at Watson Rink only to lose in sudden death overtime, 4-3.

The defeat virtually destroys Crimson hopes of being one of the four top seeds in the post-season ECAC Tournament. If the losing trend continues, Harvard may not even be chosen as one of the eight teams to participate in the tourney.

Where the Crimson is concerned, "sudden death" is an apt name for the ten minutes of hockey played after a regulation-time tie. Harvard has yet to win in overtime this season, while three of its six losses have come in extra-period games.

Clarkson scored its winning goal last night at 4:21 of the fatal session, as Tom Hurley single-handedly stole the puck from four Crimson skaters at the Harvard blue line, and skated in alone to beat goalie Brandy Sweitzer cleanly.

The last minute of the second period saw an amazing bit of fireworks. In only 33 seconds, Harvard scored twice and Clarkson once, the Golden Knights' goal coming with just three seconds left.

Harvard's best period was the first, when it outshot the Golden Knights fourteen to seven. Only some fine saves by Clarkson goalie Bob Birrell and timely poke-checking by the Knight defense kept the period scoreless. Sweitzer was hardly tested in the Harvard nets.

Knights Score

It was Clarkson that held the territorial edge for the first ten minutes of the second period, and the Knights succeeded in scoring under these circumstances where Harvard had failed. After taking a pretty pass from Tom Hurley at the Crimson blue line, John Morrill skated in alone and scored at 5:20 through Sweitzer's legs.

The line of Bill Lamarche, Barry Treadwell, and Baldy Smith brought the Crimson to life midway through the period. Play then proceeded normally until the public address system announced, "One minute left to play in the period."

Suddenly the near capacity crowd came to its feet as Harvard's Bill Fryer shot the puck from center ice off the backboards to Birrell's left. When Birrell moved out to clear the shot, the puck took a whimsical bounce off the boards and carromed off Birrell's pads toward the crease. The Knight goalie finished off the farce perfectly by swiping at the malicious disc with his glove and knocking it cleanly into the cage.

Hardly had the crowd time to realize what had happened when Harvard scored again, this time almost legitimately. Ike Ikauniks took the puck off the following face-off, beat the Clarkson defense and skated in alone to hit Birrell only twelve seconds after Fryer's goal.

But the Knights gave the partisan crowd only 21 seconds to exult. With three seconds left, Corby Adams beat Sweitzer on a low 15-footer to tie the score.

The third period took up where the second had left off. At 0:49 Adams, parked in front of Sweitzer, slapped in Brian Wilkinson's centering pass to give the Knights a 3-2 edge.

Play got rougher as the period progressed. Harvard finally evened the score at 12:16 during Clarkson's third penalty of the period. Baldy Smith knocked in a loose puck after the Knights' defense had stopped a drive by Lamarche.

At 15:36, Kinasewich was sent off for boarding, but Frycr and Ikauniks killed the penalty effectively. Harvard had a chance to win in regulation time when Clarkson's Bob Taylor was penalized for leg-checking Lamarche. Kinasewich and Ikauniks got off good shots as the Crimson played with five forwards, but no one could beat Birrell.

Then came the sudden-death overtime, and with it the death of Harvard's hopes of a high seed in the ECAC's