Harvard Rally at RPI Fails; Icemen Lose, 6-5, in Overtime

TROY, N.Y.--The RPI hockey team, which has made a habit the last two springs of sneaking into the ECAC Division One playoffs just as Harvard is slipping out of them, edged out the Crimson again Saturday night when co-captain Steve Stoyanovich scored a power-play goal just 23 seconds into overtime to give the Engineers a dramatic 6-5 victory here.

Stoyanovich, who had menaced freshman goaltender Wade Lau all night with blistering shots that somehow stayed out of the net, took a pass at the left point from defenseman Don Boyd, teed up, and fired home a low, vicious slapper that negated a furious third-period Harvard rally and sent a partisan capacity crowd of 4500 at Houston Field House into hysterics.

With the score tied at 5-5 and time running down in regulation play, RPI defenseman Pierre Thibault performed a convincing pirouette to draw the most important of the game's 22 penalties (all minors)--a hooking call on freshman David Burke at 19:55 to put the Crimson a man down when the sudden-death session began.

Instead of collapsing in the third period as it had against Dartmouth, Bill Cleary's team rallied back from a 4-2 deficit to send the game into the extra stanza.

Less than a minute into the third, after Lau twice stopped Dave Stoyanovich (Steve's brother) on the doorstep, right winger Gene Purdy brought the Crimson to within one as he broke in alone off a fine feed from Bob McDonald, swerved left and backhanded the puck past all-ECAC netminder Ian Harrison.

Harvard pressed for the tying goal, but when right winger Steve Slack swooped in on Lau and drilled an unassisted goal past his right pad to up RPI's lead to 5-3 with 13:54 to play, the game appeared out of reach for the Crimson.

With 11:20 left, and Harvard stubbornly poking away in an effort to tighten the score, the chippiness that throughout the contest threatened to boil into something more serious finally did. Some late whacks at Harrison after a goalmouth scramble prompted Jack Colucci and other Engineers to charge into the acrimonious mass of players to the side of the RPI net.

It took referees Wayne Humiel and Mel Tomalty, clipboards in hand, 15 minutes to stop the fracas and sort out the penalties--four minutes for hitting after the whistle to Colucci, and roughing minors to everyone else on the ice, with the exception of the two goaltenders.

With the teams three aside and open ice cheap, some persistent forechecking paid off for Harvard with just under six minutes to go.

Digging in the corner to the left of the RPI net, Purdy grabbed the rubber and tossed it out front. George Hughes tipped the puck between Harrison's pads for his second goal of the night, cutting the margin to one.

Needing only to kill off the remaining 5:58 for victory, RPI's defense tightened. Harvard needed a break--and got it with a little over two and a half minutes left in regulation.

When co-captain Boyd missed a drop pass, sophomore right winger Tom Murray pounced on the puck near center ice and pushed it up to Johnny Cochrane, who streaked down the right boards on a two-on-one break. Using Murray as a decoy, he wound up at the right face-off circle and lasered a shot along the ice past Harrison's stick side, triggering stunned silence among RPI followers and a mass celebration on the Harvard bench.

The Engineers opened the scoring 1:49 into the game with Crimson center Mike Watson off for high-sticking. Lau stopped a screened slapshot from Mark Grothe at the left point, but winger Mike McPhee easily shoveled the rebound over the prone goalie.

It took only seven seconds for RPI to score again. Forechecking winger Larry Landon deflected an attempted Crimson clearing pass to Michel Deschenes, who wasted no time in wristing the puck into the lower right hand corner of the net from 20 feet out. Two minutes, 2-0.

Harvard took advantage of wide-open play to get back into the game. George Hughes picked up his first goal of the year at 3:36 when he converted the rebound of a McDonald slapshot. Firmly planted just outside the crease, Hughes had only to swat the puck about six inches to put Harvard on the board.

The red light shone behind the RPI net again eight minutes later. Breaking down the middle, Jack Hughes slipped a deft pass to Watson, who had only the goalie to beat for his second goal of the young season. The 20-year-old freshman from Brunswick, Me., headfaked right, deked left, and cut sharply to his right before sliding the puck past Harrison to even the score in spectacular fashion.

The icemen from Troy broke through in the second period for another two-goal outburst. RPI grabbed a 3-2 lead at 9:04 on a goal by junior right winger Ronn Tomassoni. A Crimson defensive lapse gave the Engineers their fourth goal less than two minutes later. Slack, in control of the puck behind the Harvard net, spotted Pete DeCenzo completely unguarded in the slot. DeCenzo didn't hesitate in rapping Slack's set-up past Lau's left side.

Although the loss left Harvard with an 0-2 record, it marked a substantial improvement over the team's previous outing, last Tuesday's 7-2 defeat at Dartmouth.

In addition, the RPI game gave Harvard's big guns a chance to find their range. Perennial Crimson top scorer George Hughes led Saturday's attack with two goals and assists, while McDonald and Jack Hughes contributed three assists each.