Icemen Put a Stop to Red Raid, 8-2

The Harvard hockey squad's special teams played last night like Rick Barry at the free throw line. Or like Wade Boggs trying to reach the elusive .400 batting average.

They were almost perfect.

Sparked by three power-play scores and Allen Bourbeau's two-goal, three-assist performance, Harvard defeated Colgate, 8-2, in front of 3224 spectators at Bright Center.

The semi-perfect special-teams output--the Crimson capitalized on three of five power-play situations and killed all six penalties--kept Harvard's record in perfect condition. The Crimson (8-0 overall, 7-0 ECAC, 6-0 Ivy League) still sits alone in first place of the ECAC.

"We're improving on the power play," Harvard Coach Bill Cleary said. "We want to be a bit more patient. When we execute our power play well, it's pretty hard to defend."

After John Murphy scored the Crimson's first goal of the game, thanks to a crisp pass from the blue line by Ted Donato, the Crimson power-play unit went out on the ice twice in the opening period.

And twice the red light went on for the Crimson.

"I thought their power play was very good, they can skate," Colgate Coach Terry Slater said. "We tried to play defensive hockey against them at the beginning."

Bourbeau, Harvard's poised point man, took a shot from the center of the zone, which rebounded in front of the right side of the net.

C.J. Young tipped the puck past Colgate goalie Greg Menges (25 saves) with 7:27 remaining in the opening period.

Exactly two minutes later, Bourbeau passed the puck to Pete Ciavaglia in front of the net. The puck clung to Ciavaglia's stick like Crazy Glue, but the sophomore had no problem back-handing his shot into the net to give Harvard a 3-0 lead.

"We cooked on a couple of power plays and suddenly we're up by a few goals," Bourbeau said.

But probably the most memorable goal of the game was Harvard's fourth--Paul Howley's first goal of the year.

Doing a mean impression of Bourbeau's on-his-stomach goal against the Soviets in the 1988 Winter Olympics, Howley managed to fling the puck past Menges while he fell to the ice with 6:57 into the second period. Harvard led, 4-0, and Howley's quest for a score was over.

"I tried just about anything, from hungerstrikes to getting extra shots at practice,"Howley said.

The Red Raiders should have staged a strikeafter they had the opportunity to close theHarvard gap in the second period. Two Crimsonpenalties set up a two-man advantage for Colgateat the 12:26 mark.

But the Raiders couldn't raid freshman goalieAllain Roy (38 saves). They couldn't even take ashot.

Junior Steve Spott committed two errant passes,which Harvard Captain Lane MacDonald stole.MacDonald was soon skating into the Colgate zone,trying to get a shot off.

Harvard controlled the puck and another penaltywas killed.

The Crimson ended any ideas of a late RedRaider riot when it scored four final-periodgoals. At the 10:01 mark, Ciavaglia deflected aDonato slapshot off his skate for his second goalof the game and Harvard's last power-play score.Harvard led, 5-1.

In the first period, Harvard went to thepenalty box three times before the 10-minute mark.The Raiders pressured the Harvard net often, butRoy recorded 17 saves.

One of the bigger saves came during Colgate'ssecond power play of the night. Mike Bishop shotfrom the middle of the zone, looking for the puckto slip past Roy. But the freshman goalie buriedthe puck between his pads and 30 seconds later,Murphy gave Harvard the lead.

Crimson, 8-2 at Bright Center

Colgate   0-1-1--2Harvard   3-1-4--8

First Period-- 1, H, Murphy 5 (Donato,Hartje) 7:48; 2, H, Young 7 (Ciavaglia, Bourbeau)13:01; 3, H, Ciavaglia 3 (Bourbeau, Donato) 15:01.Penalties--H, Sneddon (interference) 3:28; H,Bench, served by Howley (too many men on ice)5:32; H, Ciavaglia (elbowing) 9:18; C, G. Wolf(roughing) 12:33; C, Young (high-sticking) 14:56;H, Hartje (high-sticking) 18:31.

Second Period--4, H, Howley 1 (Taucher,Presz) 6:57; 5, C, Cooke (Woodcroft, Lillie) 7:25.Penalties--H, Carone (holding) 3:10; C, Woodcroft(roughing) 3:56; C, Band (tripping) 6:57; C,Bishop (highsticking) 9:58; H, Ciavaglia(roughing) 9:58; H, Weisbrod (high-sticking)11:56; H, Caplan (holding) 12:26; C, Bishop(elbowing) 17:15; C, Rivard (elbowing) 18:16.

Third Period--6, H, Ciavaglia 4 (Donato,Bourbeau) 10:01; 7, H, Bourbeau 4 (MacDonald,Young) 14:03; 8, C, Cooke (Woodroft, Lillie)14:34; 9, H, Bourbeau 5 (Carone) 17:09; 10,H,Weisbrod 6 (Ciavaglia, Carone) 18:50.

Saves: H, Roy, 7-9-12--38; C, Menges9-12-4--25.

A: 322