Midnight Madness Kicks Off Hockey Season

The Harvard men's and women's hockey teams donned their jerseys to kick off hockey season in style for the fifth annual Hockey Madness last Thursday night.

A solid crowd of Crimson Crazies turned up a Bright Hockey Center at 11pm, despite the appeal of playoff baseball that may have kept some diehard fans at home.

"I was happy with the turnout. I thought that because of the Red Sox game, there would be less turnout," said junior defenseman Tim Stay. "It was fun to see all the people cheering us on."

Eager fans quickly exhausted the supply of 100 Hockey Madness T-shirts, leaving many without. And raffles send students home with prizes like gift certificates to the Harvard Bookstore, dinner at Henrietta's Table, and tickets to a Bruins game.

It was the first on-ice appearance for the women since winning the American Women's College Hockey Association national championship last spring. The squad's captains took a lap around the ice with the trophy, passing it around like it was the Stanley Cup.

It was a tough night for individual competition, as both the players and the fans were denied all opportunities to score.

Five lucky fans were chosen to compete for $50,000 by attempting to score three times on the hole in goal. Though a few shots came close to scoring, all five went home empty-handed.

And in the senior showdown, both goalies, J.R. Prestifilippo and Crystal Springer came up victorious, shutting down their classmates in one-on-one competition.

Tammy Shewchuck led the white-jerseyed team to victory in the women's scrimmage, defeating the crimson jerseys 3-0. Without the traditional staged fight, the men's scrimmage came up short, ending in a scoreless tie after the 10-minute game.

Both teams begin the regular season in a few weeks, as the men face off against the Bears at Brown on October 30th. The women kick off the season at Wisconsin on November 5th.