Icemen Break Up Union, RPI

As the bus rolled home towards Cambridge, Willie Nelson's famous hit, "On the Road Again" should have been playing in the back-round.

Not only has the Harvard men's hockey team (8-9-1, 7-5-1 ECAC) jumped back onto the winning wagon, it has also played its best hockey on the road.

After dropping its last four games, the Crimson rolled to victory this weekend over both Union (2-0) and Rensselaer (6-4). These two wins brought four points to the Bay State and produced a lot of smiling faces.

"It was a good weekend," Harvard coach Ronn Tomassoni said through a huge grin. "It was a great weekend actually."

Harvard 2, Union 0

SCHNECTADY, N.Y.--The first stop for the Crimson last weekend was Achilles Rink, where it faced off against the Skating Dutchmen of Union (4-11-2, 2-7-1) Friday night. After a good morning skate, the players were more than ready to go.

And before most of the fans had time to take their seats after the national anthem. Harvard broke into the scoring column.

Less than six minutes into the game and with a man advantage, Harvard freshman Craig Macdonald whipped a pass to senior Kirk Nielsen, who had sneaked down low in the zone right next to the left goalpost. Nielsen then slid a pass right in front of the net to freshman Craig Adams, who banged a shot past. Union goaltender Trevor Koenig to give Harvard its first tally of the game.

"We are really talented up front," senior goaltender Tripp Tracy said. "And coming into a building like this, Union has always played excellent defense and so even though we have never scored a lot of goals up here, I don't think that it is discouraging at all."

The only other score of the contest came early in the second period. After a battle for the puck in the right corner, Harvard sophomore Ethan Philpott managed to send a cross-ice pass out to MacDonald, who was positioned just inside the blue line. Like a hot potato, MacDonald quickly released a bullet pass in front of the net to linemate Stu Swenson, who knocked in the final nail in the Union coffin.

"Obviously we've hit a wall prior to this," Tomassoni said. "We've been in a little of a slump so it is good to get a win especially on the road."

Perhaps the most inspirational play came from Tracy and the entire penalty killing unit.   Harvard  2   Union  0

  Harvard  6   RPI  4

  Harvard  6   RPI  4