It's Sweet Revenge: Harvard 3, Yale 0

Revenge is always sweet. Revenge against Yale is even sweeter. And of course, securing first place in the Ivy Division of the BCAC and the accompanying guarantee of home ice for the first round of playoffs isn't too bad either.

Playing one of its best defensive games of the year, the Harvard hockey team bid farewell to Bright Hockey Center for the regular season last Saturday night with a 3-0 victory over Yale. The win ups the Crimson's record to 13-4-1 and with the Elis' 5-2 loss to Providence Sunday night gives Harvard a two and a half game lead in the Ivy division with only three games left for both squads.

The Crimson's unrelenting checking simply never let the Elis get anything generated. Yale managed only 18 shots on goal and just four or five of those really tested Harvard net-minder Grant Blair.

Safety School

While the Harvard blueliners were giving the Elis all they could handle, the Crimson offense was getting itself untracked. With 16:17 gone in the first period. Harvard scored its first goal in almost five periods of play against Yale goaltender Paul Tortorella.

Right wing Greg Britz took a feed from junior Tony Visone, and dished it off to Mark Fusco. Fusco then sent a blast from 60 feet out that bounced off Tortorella's pads and into the net. It was the only goal the Crimson would need, and brought the 3800 fans, the largest crowd of the season, to their feet.

The intermission did nothing to slow Harvard down. With just 26 seconds ticked off the clock in the second stanza, the icemen scored again. Sophomore Scott Fusco brought the puck up the ice, dumped it to teammate Jim Turner and then tipped in Turner's slapshot.

Brooke Shielded

As if Yale wasn't having enough troubles, the loss of leading scorer Bob Brooke late in the second period certainly didn't help matters. Brooke spent the rest of the game on the bench nursing stretched ligaments in his chest.

The Crimson wrapped up the win with a late third period open net goal Tim Taylor had pulled Tortorella, who played his usual outstanding game, with about 40 seconds left in the contest, and 10 seconds later defenseman Mitch Olson took advantage of the situation, poking the puck in the direction of the open net. As the Elis looked on helplessly, the puck slid slowly down the ice unmolested and straight into the goal.

Thus ended the squad's fourth straight ECAC win and its second shutout of the season. The icemen will get back in action tonight when they travel all the way to Huntington Ave. to take on the Huskies. Next weekend, the Crimson wraps up its regular season against Brown in Providence Friday and Princeton Sunday.

THE NOTEBOOK: Captain Greg Olson has had his cast removed, began skating on Friday, and may be able to return in time for the playoffs... Dean Fox's warnings about crowd behavior obviously had an effect. The only object thrown on the ice was a puck, when a fan returned it after Phil Falcone sent a blast into the stands... Yale's record now stands at 11-7, and the Elis must win at least two of their three remaining games to make the playoffs.