Bright Ice Chills Gypsy Eagles

While you were at Lamont during exam period, suffering through reserve materials, you missed some pretty good hockey at Bright Center.

But the scoreboard high above center ice was altered. "Eagles" took the place of "Harvard" next to the home team's score.

Boston College was the new "home" team. With a 230,000-square-foot athletic center is under construction in Chestnut Hill, B.C. has been an all-road team, playing its home games in scattered locations throughout the Boston area.

This was the second year that the Eagles have used the arctic confines of Bright for home games. B.C. was 3-0 in Harvard's home rink last year, but this year, the Bright ice wasn't quite as friendly. The Eagles compiled a 1-2 record in their three games in Cambridge, and each game was decided by a goal.

Defending NCAA champion North Dakota scored two shorthanded goals in the second period to beat the Eagles, 2-1, in Game One January 14. In Game Two nine days later, B.C. played a tight game with topranked Maine only to lose in over-time, 3-2, on a goal scored, fittingly, by plus-minus leader Christian Lalonde. In Game Three, a pesky Providence squad gave the Eagles all they could handle before bowing, 4-3, January 26.

I Loooove Modern Technology:

Only a handful of hockey teams play below the 37th parallel. For instance, the Los Angeles Kings, Northern Arizona University, of Alabama-Huntsville and U.S. International.

But a couple of weeks ago, diehard Clarkson and St. Lawrence fans scattered all over the nation had an opportunity to see the Golden Knights play the Saints courtesy of a satellite link-up, arranged by both university alumni offices.

The game, played January 16 and won by St Lawrence, 8-4, was seen in Atlanta, San Diego and Cleveland, among other places, according to an article in December's Chronicle of Higher Education.

The Chalkboard: What a difference a period makes. Washington found this out with a devastating five-touchdown second quarter in the Super Bowl, and Harvard found this out with a dominating third period against Brown January 15.

One cause for the shift in the Crimson's fortunes was the number of scoring opportunities the Bruins gave up in the third period, opportunities they did not allow in the second.

In the graphic, note that only four of the Crimson's 21 second-period shot attempts were taken from the area between the circles (30 feet out) in towards the goal line. Only one goal was scored, by John Murphy (26)

In the third period, Harvard attempted 24 shots, and 14 came from within the scoring zone, netting three goals (G) within the area. No wonder Harvard pulled away in the final period. Only a weird goal from behind the net (K) came from outside the scoring area in that period.

ECAC vs. The World: Don't think that the Harvard icemen are alone in dropping contests to CCHA representatives, like Illinois-Chicago. This year the ECAC is 2-7 against the CCHA.

In the ECAC-Hockey East race, the ECAC racked up a 3-1 record against Hockey East teams in holiday tournament action, but in regular season play, Hockey East has had a good December and January. The newer league now has a 6-4 non-tournament record against the ECAC with one regular-season game remaining. Vermont goes to UNH in a couple of weeks.

Lowell and Maine are the catalysts behind Hockey East's surge. Their combined record against the ECAC is a stellar 5-0.

Inter-conference games will count more than ever this year. This year, the NCAA competition committee awarded a berth in the post-season tournament to an independent team. Moreover, it expanded the playoffs from eight to 12 teams with the provision that three conferences would get three bids each and the fourth conference (i.e. the one with the worst inter-conference record) would only get two.

As of today, the ECAC is 8-13 overall--including all tournament games--against the other conferences. The best the ECAC can do is 10-13, which would involve Harvard winning the Beanpot consolation game and Vermont beating UNH.

Monitoring Merrimack: Merrimack College is once again the top-ranked independent team in the KBYR-Anchorage poll. The Warriors have a 21-3 record.

Alaska-Fairbanks is only ten points behind the Warriors in second place. The Seawolves pulled much closer due to their two wins over Merrimack and should challenge for the independent playoff spot with a month and a half to go in the season.

U.S. International, Alaska-Anchorage and Air Force round out the top five.

Heard On The Tube: During a Philadelphia Flyers-Calgary Flames telecast, Flyers' play-by-play announcer Gene Hart and analyst Bobby Taylor struck up a conversation:

Taylor: "Joe Nieuwendyk has just taken this league by storm. He was a dominating player for Cornell University out of the Eastern College Atheletic Conference."

Hart: "He was the most valuable player with...what were they called, the Red Wings?"