Browne's OT Goal Lifts Vermont

Last night in the ECAC semifinals at Boston Garden, the Vermont hockey team capitalized the "t" in tough, tense and tight in the third period and crossed it in overtime.

Trailing Harvard, 2-0, with less than nine minutes left in the game, the Catamounts scored twice. In the extra period, Vermont upset the Crimson, 3-2, in front of 9387 spectators at the Boston Garden.

At the 15:50 mark of the overtime period, David Browne tipped in a rebound past Harvard goalie Allain Roy to cap the UVM comeback.

Sixth-seeded Vermont (20-12-2) will now face second-seeded St. Lawrence (28-5)--a 6-1 winner over Cornell in the other semifinal--for the ECAC title tonight at 8:30 p.m. and an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Harvard (26-3), the top seed in the tournament, will play against number-five Cornell (16-12-2) in the 5:30 p.m. consolation game.

"We were due for this," said Harvard Captain Lane MacDonald, who scored his 27th goal of the season at 10:57 mark of the final period to give Harvard a 2-0 lead. "We just haven't been playing well. We have to wake up."

Holy Smokes

Vermont, which was swept by Harvard in regular-season play, woke up less than two minutes after MacDonald's goal when Jeff Schulman smoked a shot from the blue line that found the left corner of the net.

"He really cranked that thing," Harvard Coach Bill Cleary said. "Holy smokes, that was a tough shot."

Vermont Coach Mike Gilligan thought Schulman had other ideas.

"I was screaming at Jeff to dump the puck," Gilligan said, "and he dumped it into the net."

Marc LeBruex evened the game, 2-2, with 2:44 left in regulation. His shot from the right circle off the breakaway hit the top left corner of the net.

Then it was Browne, a native of Belmont, who gave the Catamounts their first appearance in the title game.

Four minutes into the overtime period, Mike McLaughlin shot in front of the net, but Roy made a clean save. The puck bounced right out to Browne, who stuffed it into the open net for the upset victory.

"Roy made a great save on the first shot," Browne said. "I thought it was going to go in, and I put it into the open net."

And the Burlington crowd at the Garden rattled the rafters.

"Needless to say, I'm pretty happy," Gilligan said, "and so is half the state of Vermont."

But the Green Mountain state was quiet for the first two-and-one-half periods of the game, when Roy (23 saves) dazzled the crowd with his deflections and silenced the Catamount offense.

And even when Browne did tally the game-winner, Roy, the ECAC's leading goaltender during the regular season, blocked away two successive shots.

"He made two great saves before the final goal," Cleary said. "We just didn't clear the puck."

On the other end of the ice, Harvard's offense had difficulty trying to get the puck in close and challenge goalie Mike Millham (22 yesterday's news."

"They played a good game," Cleary said. "They played tightly, and they didn't give us that much up close."

The Vermont blueliners held Harvard to no shots on goal during the sudden-death period.

While Vermont has a chance to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, the top-ranked Crimson must now recover from last night's loss and play the Big Red in the consolation game.

If Vermont and Harvard both win tonight, it is possible that the Crimson could earn a bye in the tournament when the selections are announced tomorrow afternoon.

"We just can't let up," Cleary said. "There's nothing as stale as yesterday's news, and [last night's loss] was yesterday's news."