Icemen Tangle With Brown

For the first time in 10 years, the 1990-91 Harvard men's ice hockey team was not crowned champion of the Ivy League.

Instead, an upstart Brown team took the title.

And, make no mistake about it, Harvard hasn't forgotten.

"Coach [Ronn Tomassoni] put a picture of their team up on the wall calling them Ivy Champions," senior forward Tim Burke said. "It's kind of embarrassing to win nine years in a row and then lose to Brown."

Tonight, the Crimson will gets its first crack this season at the...get this...Ivy League Champion Brown Bruins.

Sound like revenge?

Harvard sure hopes so.

The Crimson (3-0-1, ECAC 3-0-1) will roll into Meehan Auditorium in Providence and try to teach Brown (2-2-0, 2-2-0) a lesson that it will not forget soon.

The Bears and the Crimson lock horns tonight and then again on Saturday night at Bright Center in a home-and-home series that will go a long way to shaping this year's Ivy League race.

"Brown kind of snuck up on everyone last year," junior forward Steve Flomenhoft said. "It's certainly something that has been on the forefront of our minds. The Ivy League is an important milestone."

Not only does Harvard want to take the Ivy champs to school, but the team also hopes to get back on track and claim sole possession of first place in the ECAC.

The team is coming off its first setback of the season: a 2-2 tie against an improved Yale squad.

Despite outshooting the Elis, 49-30, the Crimson offense, for the first time this season, failed to score enough to win.

"After the game, everyone was pretty frustrated," Burke said. "You shouldn't lose to an inferior team at home."

Although the team was disappointed with the tie to Yale, Burke said the team wasn't worried.

"It's nothing to panic about," Burke said. "It didn't cost us two points. If we can beat Brown twice this week everything will be forgotten."

In order to sweep Brown this week, Harvard will have to go through a squad which is virtually unchanged from last year. The Browns have 21 out of the 24 skaters remaining after their Ivy Championship season.

The Brown offense has been led this season by last year's top-scoring juniors Scott Hanley and Derek Chauvatte.

"They've been playing really well. Almost their whole team is back from last year," Burke said. "They're a good team, but they are by no means a better team than us."

In addition to dealing with Brown, Harvard has to contend again with being on the road, where it lost 12 of 15 games last season.

"We'd like to establish ourselves as a good road team," explained Flomenhoft. "Obviously, this would be a good place to do it."