The Lost Weekend: Icemen Tie, Lose

The Harvard hockey team has had better weekends.

On this one, the Crimson suffered the first two blemishes on its record, following three straight wins. Saturday night in Providence, R.I., it slipped into a 4-4 tie with lowly-rated Brown. The home ice of Bright Hockey Center proved no help last night, as highly-rated RPI administered a 6-0 thumping.

"We didn't have the extra oomph that we had in other games, like the B.U. game," Harvard Coach Bill Cleary said of the two games, just after witnessing the first shutout of his team in Bright since the center opened in 1979.

Even with the loss of George Servinis, last year's ECAC scoring champ, to the Canadian Olympic team, this year's Engineer squad is among the East's toughest. After 10 scoreless minutes, RPI seized a 3-0 lead last night and never looked back, while raising its season mark to 10-2.

The 20-shot first period blitz produced its first red light 10 seconds into the first RPI power play, when Adam Oates lifted a slapshot rebound into the net. Less than a minute later, at the 12:56 mark, center Trini Itturalde scored on a backhander.

If there were any questions about who would control the rest of the game, the visitors answered them mighty quickly. Crimson goalie Grant Blair had to stop a Marty Dallman shot with six-and-a-half minutes left in the period, but couldn't hold the fort after Mike Sadeghpour went in alone with an errant Tim Smith pass with half a minute to go.

Blair turned away all 19 RPI shots in the second period, but the Engineers broke through for three more tallies in the final stanza. John Carter, the visitors' offensive star all evening, carried the puck most of the length of the rink before making it 4-0 at the 7:07 mark.

Right wing Mark Jooris converted a rebound midway through the period, and Bob DiPronio closed out the scoring three minutes later.

With Blair getting a 48-save workout by the final buzzer, and with a game against Northeastern 48 hours away, he was lucky to have rested up the night before in Providence, where sophomore Dickie McEvoy made his first start of the season.

Brown, winless with almost as many new faces on its roster as Harvard, was a very different team from the 7-0 pushover the Crimson met on its last visit to Rhode Island.

One of the Bruins' five freshmen, center Dan Allen, made his presence felt early, tucking in a rebound midway through the opening period for the first of his four points on the night.

With the home team playing a tight, cautious game meant to slow down the faster-skating Crimson, the visitors took a while to retaliate. But after Brown survived a brief two-man Harvard advantage early in the second period, Tim Smith set up Tony Visone for the equalizer with a pretty cross-ice pass.

The teams traded goals before the period's end; Rob Starbuck finished off a two-on-one at the 8:22 mark and Allen struck again seven minutes later, beating McEvoy with a short shot to the far side.

Neither team could pull away in the last regulation session. After 10 evenly-played minutes, Brown's Al Randaccio broke the tie, just 11 seconds before Visone snapped a sharp backhander past Bruin netminder John Franzosa.

It seemed Harvard might finally pull out a victory, though, after Rob Wheeler scored at the end of a give-and-go, taking the return pass from Starbuck and barrelling into the cross-bar as he scored.

But with Franzosa preparing to head for the bench in favor of a sixth skater, right wing Tom Wallack deflected a soft shot off the stick of Bruin defenseman Tom Roberts for the tying goal.

McEvoy had to make some sensational stops in the extra session to preserve the deadlock. Brown couldn't score on a power play created by a Visone high-sticking call with :02 left in regulation.

Allen seemed to have the hat trick and game-winner with two minutes left, but his score was nullified by an offsides call.

THE NOTEBOOK: After five games, Wheeler leads the Crimson with six points (four goals and two assists)....RPI earlier split a series with defending NCAA champion Wisconsin....The top team in the early ECAC standings is 4-0 Boston College. Ivy rivals Cornell and Yale have two losses each, while St. Lawrence is 1-3. At Bright Center RPI  3  0  3--6 Harvard  0  0  0--0

R. Adam Oates, (Marty Dethwan, John Carter) 11:50; R. Trini ltturralde (Kraig Neinhuis) 12:50; R. Milce Sadaghoour 19:23; R. Carter (Bob Diprorio) 7:07; R. Mark Jooris(Kan Hammond) 10:20; R. Dipronio (oslac Clrver) 13:22.

Savee--R. Darren Pupps 0-11-3--27, H. Grant Blair, 17-19-12-18.

Alt--1413.

R. Adam Oates, (Marty Dethwan, John Carter) 11:50; R. Trini ltturralde (Kraig Neinhuis) 12:50; R. Milce Sadaghoour 19:23; R. Carter (Bob Diprorio) 7:07; R. Mark Jooris(Kan Hammond) 10:20; R. Dipronio (oslac Clrver) 13:22.

Savee--R. Darren Pupps 0-11-3--27, H. Grant Blair, 17-19-12-18.

Alt--1413.