Hockeymen Falter, Tie Average Colgate

Going into Saturday night's game against Colgate, the Harvard men's hockey team appeared to be back on track. The team chemistry was finally apparent and the Crimson was doubling its opponents' shot total.

Saturday's game, however, was a different story. The team began right where it left off, dominating the first two periods. But, as was the case early in the season, it faltered late; the Colgate stormed back from a 2-0 deficit to tie Harvard, 3-3.

"Maybe it wasn't Harvard's night," Kirk Nielsen said.

"Obviously it wasn't in the cards," head coach Ronn Tomassoni said. "This was a heavyweight fight. It was one of those games with a lot of contact."

More specifically, it was an Ali-Frazier, Balboa-Creed-type fight--chock full of blood, guts and violent momentum swings.

The first period was characterized by sloppy passing and erratic neutral-zone play as both teams struggled to generate offense.

"You've got to credit Colgate there," junior Kirk Nielsen said. "They came out with a conservative forecheck and it took us a little while to adjust."

The Crimson also had to learn how to adjust to the absence of last year's ECAC player of the year, Steve Martins.

A minor ankle sprain kept the All-American out of the game, forcing Tomassoni to jumble his lines. The hurting the precision that was evident the night before.

The Crimson finally started the scoring 15:15 into the period, when Bryan Lonsinger wheeled around at the blue line and fired a blistering shot past Colgate goalie Dan Brenzavich.

Harvard had been knocking on the door for some time in that period, before the speedy duo of Tommy Holmes and Joe Craigen set up Lonsinger.

Tomassoni's squad had two excellent power-play opportunities to start the second period, but were unable to even get a significant amount of shots on net. The absence of Martins certainly hurt the power-play units, which were 0-for-5 Saturday night and one for their last twenty-two. This specialty unit differs immensely from last year's team, whose power-play success hovered around 33 percent.

After matching penalties to Harvard's Geb Marett and Colgate's Dave Debusschere, Harvard took advantage of their speed during the four-on-four situation.

Bryan Lonsinger fed Perry Cohagen streaking up the ice, who placed a beautiful backhanded pass on the stick of Cory Gustafson. The senior right-winger then rocketed a shot into the top corner of the net, extending the lead to 2-0 at 15:20 of the second period.

After two periods, the game seemed in Harvard's hands. The Crimson had outshot Colgate, 18-12, and had constantly controlled the puck down in Colgate's zone.

"Those first two periods, we were playing pretty darn well, and our defense was playing well too," Tomassoni said. "[Holding the opposition to] 6 shots per period is pretty darn good."

Entering the third period, the Bright Arena faithful hoped that the Crimson would not again fall prey to their third-period letdowns.

Their fears were realized all too quickly.

Forty seconds into the period, Earl Cronin took a pass from linemate Mike Harder and Ron Fogerty, then wristed a shot from the top of the right faceoff circle to close the gap to 2-1.

Before the Harvard players could catch their breath, Colgate struck again.

Right off the face-off, center Chris DeProfio fed Debusschere, who dropped it off to sophomore Jeff McIntosh. The defenseman regained the team lead in goals as he back-handed a shot past Tripp Tracy.

Only twenty-four seconds apart, the goals destroyed Harvard's momentum and sent the few Colgate supporters into wild jubilation.

The down slide continued at 11:31 into the final stanza. Colgate junior Brad Dexter swung around the right side of the net and pinpointed a shot in the upper corner over a sprawled Tracy, giving Colgate a 3-2 lead.

"Obviously we only have ourselves to blame," Tracy said. "We always prided ourselves on being a third-period hockey team, [but] we've given up the most goals in the third period."

Tomassoni also seemed befuddled about his team's third-period play.

"That third period is something I'm concerned about, in every one of our games so far it has been our worst period," Tomassoni said. "We certainly have to do something about it, figure out what and why."

Tomassoni also mixed up his scoring lines constantly during the third period, trying to find some sort of effective combination.

"We're in the tinkering stage, and want to look at some different things," Tomassoni said.

The Harvard players did not let up after the third Colgate goal. After being stuffed at the doorstep twice before, Nielsen finally penetrated the Brenzavich defense with a shot from fifteen feet out. The tally evened the score at 3-3 and with 4:07 left swung the momentum back to the Crimson.

"From a positive standpoint, I liked the way we reacted [to Colgate's third goal]," Tomassoni said. "We were able to come back, while they certainly had a lot of momentum going in their favor."

Neither Harvard nor Colgate could mount a scoring chance in the rest of regulation, and the overtime period was also scoreless. Colgate was able to fire five shots on Tracy during the extra period, while Harvard was not even able to get a shot on net.

"I was definitely encouraged that after they got those goals that I was able to come back strong and have a good overtime," Tracy said. "Although obviously we're disappointed we didn't get the win, it was vital that we get the tie."

"We look back and wish we could start the third period again," Nielsen said, who took away his fourth consecutive game with a goal. "It is early, we have gotten better...but we played 40 minutes with a one-minute lapse."

For a team that was 10-0-3 last year, a tie at home might be even worse than 'kissing your sister.'

"It's just really frustrating...inexperience definitely plays a part into it, for mental discipline is really important," Lonsinger said. "We're just going to have to learn the hard way."

Harvard won't have much time to study the fine details of mental discipline, though, as they face third-ranked cross town rival B.U. on Tuesday.

As for Martins, his status is day-to-day but looks optimistic for Tuesday's non-league matchup. Harvard  3 Colgate  3

Tie, 3-3 at Bright Hockey Center Colgate  0  0  3  0  --  3 Harvard  1  1  1  0  --  3

First Period

Har--Lonsinger 2 (Holmes, Craigan) 15:15.

Second Period

Har--Gustafson 3 (Cohagen, Lonsinger) 15:20.

Third Period

Col--Cronin 3 (Fogerty, Harder) :40.

Col--McIntosh 3 (Debusachere, DeProfio) 1:04.

Col--Dexter 1 (Mara, Baaid) 11:31.

Har--Nelson 4 (Gustafson, Hallnight) 15:53.

Overtime

No Scoring.

Saves: Col--Brenzavich 9-9-6-0 24; Har--Tracy 4-8-6-5 23.

Power Plays: Col--0 for 2; Har--0 for 5.

Attendance: 2,916

Tie, 3-3 at Bright Hockey Center Colgate  0  0  3  0  --  3 Harvard  1  1  1  0  --  3

First Period

Har--Lonsinger 2 (Holmes, Craigan) 15:15.

Second Period

Har--Gustafson 3 (Cohagen, Lonsinger) 15:20.

Third Period

Col--Cronin 3 (Fogerty, Harder) :40.

Col--McIntosh 3 (Debusachere, DeProfio) 1:04.

Col--Dexter 1 (Mara, Baaid) 11:31.

Har--Nelson 4 (Gustafson, Hallnight) 15:53.

Overtime

No Scoring.

Saves: Col--Brenzavich 9-9-6-0 24; Har--Tracy 4-8-6-5 23.

Power Plays: Col--0 for 2; Har--0 for 5.

Attendance: 2,916

First Period

Har--Lonsinger 2 (Holmes, Craigan) 15:15.

Second Period

Har--Gustafson 3 (Cohagen, Lonsinger) 15:20.

Third Period

Col--Cronin 3 (Fogerty, Harder) :40.

Col--McIntosh 3 (Debusachere, DeProfio) 1:04.

Col--Dexter 1 (Mara, Baaid) 11:31.

Har--Nelson 4 (Gustafson, Hallnight) 15:53.

Overtime

No Scoring.

Saves: Col--Brenzavich 9-9-6-0 24; Har--Tracy 4-8-6-5 23.

Power Plays: Col--0 for 2; Har--0 for 5.

Attendance: 2,916