Icemen Headed for a Garden Party

You can do many things in five seconds.

You can dial a phone number. You can flip a coin 2.3 times. You can pour enough milk for your cereal or try to write the concluding sentence of a paper that's due in five minutes. You could also run a red light. Or even think 4.1 thoughts.

The possibilities are endless.

Saturday night at Bright Center, the Harvard hockey team added another entry to the "Things you can do in five seconds" list. Within the span of only five ticks of the clock in the third period, Harvard scored two goals and defeated RPI, 6-4, in the final night of its ECAC quarterfinal series.

The five-second spurt broke a 4-4 tie and put the Crimson on a Green Line train bound for Boston Garden, where Clarkson will be waiting Friday night for an ECAC Final Four matchup.

Faster that you can sneeze or blink your eyes, Harvard set a new ECAC Tournament record for the quickest consecutive goals. The previous record was six seconds, set in three playoffs games (Boston College vs. St. Lawrence, 1967; Cornell vs. Providence, 1971; and Harvard vs. Clarkson, 1975).

But the record was ribbon tied around a bigger gift. Harvard, sticking to its skating game in the final period, finally swatted the pesky RPI bee. While the Engineers tried to sting with their bodies, the Crimson stung with their skates. And it took only five ticks of the clock.

"I think we managed to pick up the momentum," said Harvard senior Andy Janfaza, who netted the game-winner at the 14:18 mark.

With Janfaza and Captain Steve Armstrong on a two-on-one break, Janfaza was skating down the left side of the zone and tried to get a pass off to Armstrong. RPI's Rob Schena deflected the puck but it rolled past Engineer goalie Steve Duncan and into the net.

"It was the first two-on-one I tried to pass to Steve this year," Janfaza said.

Schena skated back to the RPI bench, glassy-eyed, according to his coach. The players on the iceset up for the face-off.

C.J. Young won the face-off, controlled thepuck and passed it to linemate Peter Ciavaglia inthe middle of the zone. Faster than the announcercould say, "Harvard's fifth goal scored by AndyJanfaza," Ciavaglia unleashed a shot that beatDuncan.

Stickwork

"We got the breaks," said Ciavaglia, who nettedhis first goal at Bright and eight of the year."It's great to come back and get a goal soquickly."

Two goals in five seconds can silence the mostphysical of opposing teams. But it also proved toRPI Coach Mike Addesa that creating penalties andsetting up four-on-four situations-a peculiar RPIstrategy--did not favor his squad at all. Toaccomplish this, his players would play deaf tothe whistle and wait for the officials to sendsome players to the box.

You had to have a reservation for the penaltybox, while the space on the ice read "Vacancy" formost of the night.

"To tell you the truth," Young said, "afour-on-four is an advantage for us. I don't thinkthey thought about that so much."

Addesa and his squad didn't have that much timeto think during the final period. For fiveseconds, Harvard was playing like it was the onlyteam on the ice. RPI was up in the stands playingin the horn section of the Engineer band.

The song didn't last that long. But when itended, Harvard proved that in too little time, alot could be done.

THE NOTEBOOK Harvard goalie John Devinturned in one of his best efforts Saturday,particularly in the final period. "You've got totake the attitude that you have to shut them outfor 20 minutes," said Devin of his thoughts ongoing into the final period tied. "If you do that,most likely you win the game right then andthere."...United States Olympians Allen Bourbeau,Scott Fusco and Lane MacDonald were in attendanceFriday and Saturday night. MacDonald said it was"strange to be back. It's the first time since myrecruiting trip that I've seen a Harvard game fromthe stands." MacDonald and Bourbeau will be backin uniform for the Crimson next year.

Crimson, 6-4 a Bright Center

RPI  2-2-0--4Harvard  2-2-2--6

First Period--1, R, Coles (Mansi,Casalena) [pp] 1:42; 2, H, Donato (Young,Pawloski) [pp] 9:50; 3, H, Donato (Sweeney, Young)[pp] 17:24; 4, R, Juneau (Hejna) 19:37.Penalties--H, McCormack (holding) 0:43; R, LeBlanc(hitting from behind) 5:48; R, Coles (roughing)8:27; H, Vukonich (roughing) 8:27; R, Schena(hooking) 8:14; R, Casalena (high-sticking) 10:28;H, Armstrong (high-sticking) 10:28; R, Townshend(hooking) 15:25; H, Janfaza (hitting afterwhistle) 16:43; R, Juneau (high-sticking) 17:00;R, Moore (hooking) 19:12; H, Young (interference)19:29..

Second Period-- 5, H, Murphy (Weisbrod,Taucher) 2:36; 6, R, Mansi (Coles, Taucher) 2:36;6, R, Mansi (Coles, Kopecky) 4:58; 7, R, Hejna(Juneau) 5:45; 8, H, Vukonich (Weisbrod, Murphy)8:46. Penalties--R, Moore (slashing) 9:34; H,Melrose (hooking) 19:20.

Third Period-- 9, H, Janfaza (Sweeney,Caplan) 14:18; 10, H, Ciavaglia (Young) 14:23.Penalties--H, Sweeney (cross-checking) 8:08; R,Juneau (roughing) 13:24; H, Donato (13:24); H,Janfaza (illegal stick) 16:55; H, Janfaza, servedby Farden (misconduct) 16:55.

Saves--R, Duncan 5-11-11--27; H, Devin10-5-10--25

Power Play Opps: R, 1-6; H, 2-6.

A: 291