Bulldogs Cloud Harvard's Playoff Picture, 5-3

NEW HAVEN, Conn.--The Harvard hockey team has to win all of its four remaining games to make the ECAC playoffs.

The Crimson made sere of that Saturday night here at lagalls Risk be dropping a 3-3 decision to Yale. The loss pushed Harvard, now 7-8-2, a full game behind the Elie (9-8-1) and Cornell (9-8-1) in the race for the Ivy division championship.

The Crimson's playoff situation is absurdly simple. Best Northeastern. Princeton, Cornell and Dartmouth or you're out. Get it?

A win Saturday night would have prevented the need for a streak. A win Saturday night would have pet Harvard in the driver's sent, one game over 300 with four games to go. A win would have given the Crimson a loss to spare, a game to throw away, a flat night that could be forgotten.

Problem is, Yale was thinking the same thing.

"I don't know if we're in command now because we're still tied with Cornell (the Big Red best Maine, 8-2, to retain a share of the Ivy lead)." Yale's Bob Brooke said after the game. "But I will any this--if we play like this we'll be hard to best."

Brooke had an exciting night, with two goals, one assist and one incredibly cheap hit on Harvard goalie Wade Lau (more on that later) He or his linemates, wings Joe Gagliardi and Mark Crerar, were involved in four of the Bulldog goals, but it was the other one, an Ed McManus tally at 1:57 of the second period, that proved to be the game winner.

With Yale leading, 3-1, at the start of the second period. McManus took a pass from Matt Bohan, waltzed in front of Lau and flicked a wrist shot night into his pads The puck came back out in front of the net, and with nobody there to clear it away, the sophomore had no trouble beating Lau to his right side for a 4-1 lead.

It took gangland violence by Yale to get the Crimson back into the game. In the midst of a lackluster stretch for both teams. Brooke cruised in on the Harvard net without the puck and blatantly decked goalie Lau with a forearm to the head.

Because play was at the other end. Brooke's action went unnoticed by referee Pierre Boulanger, although just about everybody else in the jam-packed arena saw it. "There's no use complaining because it be didn't see it, he didn't see it," Harvard Coach Billy Cleary said after the game. "There's nothing you can do."

Brooke, who apologized to Lee after the game, explained his action like this: "Your adrenaller starts flowing so reach, and I was right there in the crease. I more or less pushed off him, and I had my suck up high and I guess it hit his throat guard, but it was just something that happened in the hest of the bettle, and nothing against Lau or Harvard."

Whatever, it fired up the Crimson, which clicked for two goals in just over two minutes.

With Yale's Dave Williams off the ice for interference, defenseman Neil Sheehy carried the puck all the way up the ice and shot on Bulldog goalie Paul Tortorelis, who had an eye on Greg Olson cutting in on his left. Tortorella made the initial wave, but dropped the puck behind the goal line to make it a 4-2 game at 14:54.

Just 2:10 inter, Jay North unleashed a shot from Tortorella's left and Greg Chalmers slipped the rebound home for his sixth goal of the season.

Crimson Outfoxed

But that brief flurry was it for the icemen, who flung 11 more shots at Tortorella (32 on the day) but didn't tally again.

Brooke closed out the scoresheet at 9:22, moments after Tortorella had robbed Scott Fusco at the other end, and even a six-on-four situation in the last two minutes (with Gaghard, in the penalty box and Lau off the ice) couldn't close the gap.

In the end, it was the style of play that made the difference. Yale played its game, a physical game, and Harvard can't beat the Elis at the physical game--not when the Elis have six players six-foot-two of taller and Harvard has none.

"You just can't get into the wrestling matches," Cleary said after the game. "You have to skate, an let them try and catch up."

But now, it's the Crimson which will be trying to catch up.

THE NOTEBOOK The three stars, as selected by The Crimson McManus. Brooke, Crerar Lau's ninth save of the night late in the first period broke Bruce Derno's career mark of 1921. With four games left, the senior from St. Paul, Minn, has 1936... Harvard returns to action tomorrow at Bright Center when Northeastern invades Cambridge. The Huskies are coming off an overtime win at RPI Saturday night... The Crimson junior varsity continues to roll. Kevin Hampe's charges won their 11th straight, 10-1, at Yale. Cleary's son Bill notched five points.