Icemen Denied ECAC Title, 4-2

POTSDAM, N.Y.--Down 3-2, with 51 seconds remaining last night, the Harvard men's hockey team knew what it had to overcome.

The charged up crowd of 3,167. Tough, hard-nosed Clarkson goalie, Jason Currie. And an aggressive, talented Clarkson offensive corps.

In the end, it was too much.

Just 13 seconds after Harvard Coach Ronn Tomassoni pulled goalie Allain Roy, Clarkson freshman forward Patrice Robitaille fired a brisk shot from the left corner into Harvard empty net to assure the second-place Golden Knights a 4-2 victory over the ECAC leading Crimson.

With the loss--Harvard's first ECAC road defeat of the season--the Crimson drops to 14-5-6 overall, and 13-2-6 in the ECAC. With 32 points, Harvard now holds a one-point lead over Clarkson (21-7-1, 15-5-1 ECAC) heading into tonight's final regular season game against St. Lawrence.

Harvard needs a victory tonight against the Saints (who beat Brown, 3-2, last night) or a Clarkson loss to Brown in order to the ECAC regular season title.

Of courses, all of this could have been wrapped up last night, but the Clarkson was just too strong.

"We had to be at our absolute best to beat them, and except for a few minor incidents, I think we were," Clarkson Coach Mark Morris said.

"We have no reason to hang our heads. If we win tomorrow night, we can still win this thing," Tomassoni said.

The lone spark came from sophomore forward Brian Farrell, who made an impressive return to action after missing 18 games with a thigh injury. Farrell collected one goal and one assist and led the second line to one of its best performances of the season.

"It was obviously very nice to have him out there," Tomassoni said. "He was a real boost to the team."

Defensively, the Crimson, behind another inspired effort from Roy (26 saves) prevented the explosive Clarkson offense from blowing the game open.

Clarkson, to its credit, kept the pressure on the Crimson all night with Robitaille and freshman forward Todd Marchant each collecting a goal and an assist.

The Golden Knights scored their first goal 11:45 into the first period, on a perfectly executed screen in front of the Harvard net.

Nestled in the right corner, Robitaille sneaked a pass across the ice to Marchant, who directed the pass past Roy's left leg and into the net.

With the Clarkson crowed in a frenzy, Harvard maintained its composure long enough to even the game.

Farrell collected the puck at center ice, and racing in on the left side, unleashed a blistering slapshot that flew into the net at 13:40.

Clarkson took the lead back, however, on a power play goal late in the period.

At 7:11 of the second period, with Clarkson up 2-1, the Crimson scored a power play goal when junior forward Steve Flomenhoft tipped in a Farrell slaphshot from the blue line.

But Clarkson took the lead for good at 16:52 of the second period when senior Ed Sabo pushed in Ed Henrick's rebound past Roy to put the Knights up, 3-2.

THE NOTEBOOK: Freshman defender Bryan Lonsinger, who filled in for injured sophomore, Derek Maguire last night, will likely miss tonight's game after injuring his right knee 9:48 into the third period.