Icemen Thrash St. Lawrence, 8-3

Hold on to your hats and batten down the hatches, the Harvard men's hockey team is scoring--and winning--at home again! St. Lawrence  3 Harvard  8

With one weekend of regular season action left in the ECAC, Harvard held its fate in its own hands and seized the moment with an 8-3 romp over the hottest team in the league, St. Lawrence.

The success at home comes none too soon for the Crimson because the victory assures Harvard home-ice for next week's ECAC playoffs.

"It's a great sign at this time of the year to finally put a team away," Harvard coach Ronn Tomassoni said.

"Coming down the stretch its important for us to have a total team effort and play 60 minutes of consistent, tough hockey," captain Ben Coughlin said.

The contest was a game of firsts: the first time Harvard had scored more than five goals all year at home, and the first time Peter McLaughlin, Michel Breistroff and Geordie Hyland notched goals this season.

The game began with the spark Harvard had all year: Steve Martins. The senior fired a rebound into the upper corner on Harvard's first power play attempt 4:20 into the contest to give the Crimson a 1-0 lead.

Burke Murphy retaliated for the Saints, stickhandling nicely through several Crimson players in front of the net for a power play goal of his own, tying up the game at one with seven minutes left in the period.

But Harvard would acquire a lead it would not relinquish just two minutes later while killing off a St. Lawrence power play. McLaughlin fired a slap shot from nearly center ice that banged off a post and past stunned Saint goalie Jon Bracco.

"It's nice tonight how the defensemen helped out with the offense, and I think that takes some pressure off the forwards," McLaughlin said.

Harvard only had a 2-1 lead after one stanza, but continued to apply the pressure. For once, players other than Martins stepped up their play and contributed major offensive punch.

Just 2:13 into the second stanza, Geordie Hyland took a pass at the point from Ashlin Halfnight, stickhandled around a trio of Saint defenders, and wristed a shot past Bracco.

Before the Harvard band could even cool down from the celebration, the Crimson would strike again. Only 31 seconds later, Brad Konik poked home a loose puck in front of the St. Lawrence net to extend the Harvard lead to 4-1.

Bryan Lonsinger capitalized on a power play with 11:16 left in the second period, one-timing a pass from Martins, giving Harvard a 5-1 lead and sending Bracco to the showers.

The second-string St. Lawrence goalie--freshman Clint Owen--would face an equal amount of scoring rushes from the hungry Crimson.

But the young St. Lawrence squad would not quit. Near the end of the second period, Murphy flipped another loose puck past a crowd of players to bring the score to 5-2.

Going into the third period, the five goals scored had tied the most amount produced by the Crimson this year at home, but the marksmen would not let up.

Three fifty-four into the period, Kirk Nielsen sent the puck past Owen for a 6-2 lead.

The Saints rebounded with 10:18 left in the contest, when Jeff Kungle one-timed a pass from Tom Perry on a Saint power play, pulling St. Lawrence to within three goals again.

But Konik would put the game away for good. Less than a minute later, the junior came in on a 2-on-1 against Owen, and fired the puck between the freshman's legs for a 7-3 Crimson advantage.

"That was the capper on the night..it was kind of a `we finally did it, we finally got goals, we finally blew a team out,'" Konik said.

Michel Breistroff would put the nail in the coffin for Harvard, wristing a shot from the point with less than one minute left in the game.

"We've struggled here, and to come out with a big win like this was very important," Tomassoni said. "But this is only half the pie, we've got to get the other half tomorrow night."

HARVARD, 8-3 at Bright Hockey Center St. Lawrence  1  1  1  --  3 Harvard  2  3  3  --  8

First Period

Har--Martins (Cohagan, Konik) 4:20.

StL--B. Murphy (Cullen, Ladouceur) 12:59.

Har--McLaughin 15:18.

Second Period

Har--Hyland (Halfnight, Coughlin) 2:13.

Har--Konik (Lonsinger) 2:34.

Har--Lonsinger (Martins, Coughlin) 8:44.

StL--B. Murphy (Cassidy, Stevens) 18:14.

Third Period

Har--Nielsen (McCarthy, Higdon) 3:54.

StL--Kungle (Perry, B. Murphy) 9:42.

Har--Konik (Breistroff, Lonsinger) 10:31

Har--Breistroff (McCarthy, Higdon) 19:06.

Saves: Har--Tracy 8-7-2 17; StL--Bracco 7-4-0 11.Owen 0-4-8 12.

Power Play: H 3-10, StL 4-7

Attendance: 2896