Icemen Crush Yale

Maybe Yale men's hockey goalie Mike Schwalb felt intimidated.

On Friday, he witnessed a super-human performance by Cornell goaltender Doug Dadswell, whose tournament-record 57 saves helped the Big Red slide past the Elis, 3-2, in double overtime in the semifinal round of the ECAC tournament.

And in Saturday's consolation game Schwalb had to compete with the nation's lowest goals-against average, in the person of Harvard's Grant Blair.

Maybe that's why he surrendered five goals to the Crimson in the first 25 minutes of play Saturday.

Maybe that's why after the fifth Harvard goal--a Tim Smith blast from 10 feet at 5:16 of the second period--the beleaguered goalie was gone.

In came third-stringer Mickey Kappele.

And although the senior allowed only one goal in the remaining 35 minutes, he couldn't prevent Harvard from pounding the Bulldogs, 6-3, before 6268 spectators at Boston Garden.

Cornell nipped Clarkson, 3-2, in overtime late Saturday in the tournament final to win the ECAC crown.

Both Harvard (22-7-1 overall) and Cornell (20-6-4) will advance to the NCAA tournament, with quarterfinal games beginning at local sites Friday.

Meanwhile, Yale (21-10) and Clarkson (18-11-3), whose seasons came to an end Saturday, will have ample time to prepare for next year.

For Harvard--which had played sluggish, uninspired hockey for the past three weeks--the victory represented a return to the form that lifted it to seven straight victories from early February to the middle of March.

Back in Crimson

"We're back," Crimson Coach Bill Cleary said. "That's the type of hockey we're used to playing. Yale's a big, strong team. You can't give them any room."

For Yale, the loss was a sad end to a season which saw it win 20 games for the first time in its history and capture second place behind Harvard in the regular season ECAC standings.

"It wasn't our fault that we didn't play well," said Eli Coach Tim Taylor, whose team played just under 72 minutes of exhausting hockey the previous night. "We just didn't have anything left. I'm not disappointed. I think we've won the accolades of everyone in the league this season."

Harvard forward Lane MacDonald first put the Crimson on the scoreboard with 16 minutes left in the first period after taking a pass from right wing Tim Smith 20 feet from the Yale net and flipping a shot past Schwalb.

Smith knocked in a goal himself with two minutes left in the opening period.

The senior trapped Captain Scott Fusco's pass three feet from Schwalb and shoved a shot under the netminder's pads for a 2-0 Harvard lead.

Fusco's assist was the 128th of his career, breaking Joe Cavanaugh's Harvard record of 127. Fusco now holds every major career scoring mark.

When Smith scored his second goal of the evening with 15 minutes left in the second period, Taylor pulled Schwalb and replaced him with Kappele.

Kappele stopped 17 Crimson shots but couldn't snag Harvard defenseman Jerry Pawloski's 70-ft. slapshot that streamed past him with 13 minutes left in the final stanza.

"I was kind of tired," Pawloski said. "It was near the end of my shift. I was just trying to hit the net."

In the third period, Yale outshot Harvard 18 to 10 and pumped in three goals on Blair--who finished with 29 saves to give him 2841 for his career, an ECAC record--but muffed a handful of other opportunities.

Owners of the nation's most effective power-play--which had clicked at a 36 percent rate before Saturday's contest--the Elis went 0-5 against the Crimson when they had an extra-man advantage.

"I don't think they got too many shots in those five opportunities," Cleary said. "We shut them down pretty well."

And while Harvard's defense was impressive, its offense--virtually absent in the Crimson's 4-2 semifinal loss to Clarkson Friday--turned in a performance reminiscent of earlier victories over Vermont and defending NCAA champion RPI in early March.

"More important was the way we came back," Cleary said. "It was no easy task."

THE NOTEBOOK: Harvard fourth-line forward Pete Follows didn't play Saturday because of an ankle injury...Fusco finished with three assists to give him 129 for his career.