Icemen Fall to Vermont, 4-3, Rebound to Bury Brown, 9-5

It's young and inexperienced; everyone knows that. Sometimes it comes out flat and sloppy and just a little bit dull. Jut as often, it displays an exciting, scrappy, hustling style that wears down opponents and evokes hope that this season won't end in the inevitable disappointment of recent years.

It's the hot-and-cold Harvard University hockey team, which this weekend split a pair of crucial ECAC Division I confrontations at Bright Center, rebounding from a frustrating 43 overtime loss to the University of Vermont Friday night to overwhelm Brown, 9-5, the following afternoon.

Three Crimson skaters--defenseman Mark Fusco (four assists), and leftwingers Jim Turner and Dave Connors (two goals and two assists each)--led the way in Saturday's offensive explosion, which broke Harvard's five-game losing streak and took some of the edge off Friday night's let-down ending.

More importantly, the win left Harvard with a 4-4-1 ECAC Division I record (4-7-1 verall) and a very plausible shot at post season play, while relegating Brown (3-8-2 overall, 2-5-2 ECAC Division I) to the dregs of the Ivy Division.

Against UVM (now 5-2 in Division I) Harvard trailed 2-0 after two periods that could charitably be described as loose, then roared into the lead with three rapid-fire tallies in the opening 3:38 of the third.

Tom Murray's superb individual effort, which culminated with the rightwinger barreling into the net just after flicking the puck over Catamount goalie Sylvian Turcotte, fired up the Crimson just eight seconds into period three. Freshman Fusco followed with a blast from the point which caught the net above Turcotte's shoulder, and Bob McDonald short-hopped home a Fusco rebound to make it 3-2.

But Vermont center Tom Cullity vaporized the comeback, tying the contest on a deflection with 12:40 left in regulation and winning it on a wristshot from the slot 8:04 into the ten-minute sudden-death overtime. The decisive goal, set up by leading UVM scorer Craig Homola and standout defenseman Louis Cote, came 1:34 into Harvard co-captain Graham Carter's charging penalty. Sophomore netminder Wade Lau, who kept the Crimson in the game during the early going and performed well all weekend, had no chance on the play.

When Cullity's shot stretched the twine high to Lau's right Harvard's ECAC record dropped below .500 for the first time all season, and made defeating Brown a virtual necessity. The few veterans on this year's freshman-dominated squad could recall the first Saturday in January a year ago, when the Bruins trudged into Brookline and skated Harvard into the Walter Brown Arena ice, 7-3, before a national T.V. audience. Likewise, the prospect of a six-game losing streak did not appeal to the Crimson.

"After five straight you can get into a rut and forget what winning feels like," commented Lau. "You begin to expect it. Last year, the team accepted losing very well, but we won't."

"They really kicked us when we were down last year," said Dave Burke, who also remembered. "This time we felt, let's take it to them."

Harvard did. The Crimson's nine-goal barrage began only 19 seconds after the opening faceoff when freshman goalhound Greg Olson rapped in the rebound of his brother Mitch's slapshot after the puck rebounded off the boards behind the Bruin net. It didn't end until Connors, another freshman, sailed a backhander past Erci Eisendrath at 10:34 of the third period, just five seconds after Eisendrath replaced Mark Holden, Brown's starting goaltender.

In between, the Crimson skaters unveiled a ferocious forechecking game that resulted in numerous opportunities in the Brown zone--and, as a by-product, exposed Lau to fast breaks in the other direction and 34 shots on the day. Harvard's attack was spread evenly among the top three lines--Turner, Mike Watson and Greg Olson, Greg Britz, Burke and Murray, Connors, McDonald and Derek Malmquist--as 11 players contributed a point or more.

A slapshot from Burke, who patiently waited at the point for the right moment to uncork, McDonald's conversion of a cross-ice pass from Connors, and Greg Olson's short-handed goal made it 4-2 Harvard after one. Brown cut the margin to one, but McDonald and Connors struck again 36 seconds apart, and the Crimson never looked back. Ahead 6-3 after two, the Crimson coasted the rest of the way.

Gathering

"We have to get it into our minds," said Burke, "that we have to play 'our' game every game and not let the other team define the style of play. We have to go out and play with confidence."

"It's hard to say," said Turner, when asked why the team plays so well at some times and not-so-hot at others. "Something just clicks."