Raising Fists

The players on the Harvard men's hockey team didn't hang their heads after losing 2-1 to Colgate last night. They raised their fists.

Sophomore forward Craig Adams responded to provocation by a Colgate player with a brief post-game scuffle.

When a young team loses the second game of the season, it is easy to resort to cliches and explain away the defeat as a "learning experience," and to see fisticuffs as a mark of frustration.

However, while the cliche may ring true, it cannot begin to tell the whole story of how well the Crimson played.

It was a game the team should not have lost and it was a loss in which the positive far outweighed the negative.

"I was really pleased with how we played. I thought that we played pretty darn well," Harvard coach Ronn Tomassoni said. "Unfortunately we couldn't put one more in the net."

"Sometimes you play a great game and the scoreboard doesn't show it," junior defenseman Brian Famigletti added.

Adams' post-game actions were the mark of a team which, in only three games, has already shown a tremendous amount of character, pride and confidence. Not only do they have the talent and skill to win games against the best of the ECAC, they believe they should win.

The players' confidence was in evidence when sophomore Rob Millar took the puck from the blue line, faked left and found the back of the net for a short-handed goal. It was the first short-handed goal that Colgate has allowed this season and the Crimson made it look easy.

In a game that frequently came down to special teams, Harvard more than held its own. Prior to last night, the Red Raiders had scored on 10 of 18 power play opportunities--they were 0-for-6 against the Crimson.

This statistic includes the time when Harvard had to kill eight seconds of 5-on-3 action followed by a minute of 5-on-4.

Last week, after the Brown victory, Tomassoni had commented that penalty killing was one of the team's weakest areas. A well-placed check by senior captain Ashlin Halfnight inside the Harvard end disrupted Colgate's offense and set the tone for the kill. What a difference a week makes.

The Crimson is also to be commended for its ability to contain the Red Raiders' speedy right wing, Mike Harder. Harder, who is consider a Hobey Baker and All-American candidate, was limited to sporadic and ultimately ineffective rushes to goal.

All this promising play on special teams and at even strength comes as Harvard is playing without the scoring touch of Henry Hilton, the team's leading returning scorer, as well as the size of Ethan Philpott.

"We're a little thin right now up front with all our injuries," Tomassoni said. "I made a decision to go with three lines and spot a fourth."

The absence of Higdon and Philpott has also made it difficult for the team to develop any chemistry as the forward lines remain in flux.

Added to the mix and match of the forward lines is the fact that Harvard is not yet in game shape. Colgate had played four games compared to the Crimson's two before last night's meeting.

"We're a little out of shape right now," Famigletti said. "We're starting to get our skating legs."

Alhough this weekend's games are often allowed to set the tone for the rest of the season, last night's loss to Colgate shows more promise than last year's overtime tie to the Red Raiders.

With Harvard gaining experience in every game, the Crimson players should soon be able to raise their fists in victory.