A Gloomy Revival

His post-game press conferences usually have all the flair of a revival. RPI Coach Mike Addesa, flanked by his son and daughter, presides over a haggard band of reporters and a dozen smiling Engineer groupies.

His post-game comments are orations. His metaphors as flowery as his hair is white.

Saturday, Addesa was less like a preacher than a beached whale. His back was up against the wall, literally. His eyes were glazed and tired-looking as he spoke--in haggard sentences--about his team's 6-4 loss to Harvard in the final game of the team's ECAC quarterfinal series.

Mike Addesa had seen better days. His team had won the NCAA Championship in 1985. But ever since, Harvard has been the team to beat, the team that gets the bounces and gets to boast after victory after victory after victory.

Saturday, Harvard's Andy Janfaza scored the game-winning goal off a pass intended for his winger, Steve Armstrong. Instead of landing on Armstrong's stick, Janfaza's pass bounced off an RPI defenseman's leg and into the net.

"Unfortunately, our defenseman...I can't remember seeing anything like it...it was like a blur out between the red line and the blue line," Addesa said. "It was like...all of a sudden he didn't know where he was."

The Harvard pass that became a goal was a stinging metaphor for the RPI season. RPI's young, talented team impressed people with its hard-hitting, energetic approach to the game.

But the team could only climb to eighth place in the league. And after giving the standard 110 percent Saturday, RPI fell short--on a pass that became a goal.

"It's been a season where I haven't seen us get a good bounce," Addesa said. "Our team came prepared for this series, and they played very hard."

Aint's

It's safe to say that Addesa is not the ECAC's most popular coach. People say he is arrogant. People say he treats his hockey players like pawns.

But could you scorn a man who waits in the receiving line at game's end to shake each and every one of the opposing players' hands? Could you berate a man for praising opposing players, even after they have sent his team home again for a long spring's respite?

Saturday, Addesa said Harvard's Don Sweeney is one of the best defenseman he has ever seen. Saturday, Addesa called Harvard's C.J. Young an All-America caliber player.

He waited in line. He shook hands. And then, he presided over a dour band of reporters and a few disconsolate RPI groupies.

Saturday, Addesa spoke in bruised sentences about his team, going home now to watch the ice melt and wait on another season.

The Last Time...

The last time Harvard faced Clarkson, the Crimson's ECAC semi final opponent, it won, 3-2 in Potsdam, N.Y.