Goalie Error, Flatness Costs M. Hockey Two

CANTON, N.Y.--Of all the road weekends, Clarkson-St. Lawrence has to rank among the worst.

A grueling seven-hour bus ride for the privilege of battling ECAC contenders--this year in first and second place, respectively, and No. 7 and No. 9 in the nation--is enough to make any hockey player roll his eyes. HARVARD  4 ST. LAWRENCE  5 (OT) HARVARD  1 CLARKSON  5

For 59 minutes and 27 seconds Friday night against the Saints, none of that mattered. The Harvard men's hockey team had a 4-3 lead and firm control of the game. Then the North Country catastrophe began.

Off a neutral-zone face-off win, Saints junior defenseman Justin Harney released a seemingly harmless long slapshot from two feet behind the Crimson blueline. Junior goaltender J.R. Prestifilippo--who had been rock solid all night--inexplicably reacted late to the blast and it trickled off his right pad into the back of the net, forcing overtime.

A stunned Crimson (11-14-2, 6-12-2 ECAC) offered no further resistance and freshman star Brandon Dietrich--wide open in the low slot--roofed an Al Fyfe feed to give St. Lawrence a 5-4 overtime victory. The Crimson never cleared the zone in overtime, and its defense did not improve much the next day, falling to Clarkson 5-1 at Cheel Arena.

"They won the face-off back, and I screwed up basically," Prestifilippo said. "The team played great and I wasn't there for them. I can't tell you one thing that puck did to get by me."

A victory over St. Lawrence (18-10-3, 13-3-3) would have snapped the Saints' eight-game winning streak. The Saints were one of two teams in the ECAC hotter than Harvard--Clarkson is the other--and the win would have continued to build momentum for Harvard.

Of course, the loss Friday night still does not account for the Crimson's poor effort Saturday afternoon.

"I'm not concerned with the fact that they are No. 9 or No. 7," said captain Craig Adams. "I'm upset we didn't get the two points, pure and simple."

Losing the two points may be the toughest part of the weekend. The sweep dropped the Crimson to ninth place, behind Vermont.

Harvard will now have to pull a sweep of its own at home this weekend to avoid heading back up to the North Country for the first round of the playoffs.

"We certainly don't want to come back here," said junior defenseman Matt Scorsune.

No. 9 St. Law. 5, Harvard 4 (OT)

Before Harney took his fateful shot to tie the game. St. Lawrence Coach Joe Marsh had already scripted his post-game speech. Despite leading by only one, Harvard had such command of the game that the final half-minute seemed pro forma.

"We caught a lucky break. Harvard had slowly taken over momentum of the game." Marsh said. "If we had lost, I would have told my team we got a kick in the ass from a team who could play."

The Crimson outshot the talented Saints 20-5 in the final period of regulation and had completely smothered any sparks of offense.

Junior forward Trevor Allman, the hero of last Saturday's win at Cornell with two goals, appeared destined for such honors again.

At 9:44 of the third period, Allman dug for the puck to the side of the net off freshman defenseman Peter Capouch's point shot and tried to wrap it home. Sprawled senior goaltender Eric Heffler denied him at the right post, but Allman recovered his own rebound and swooped around the back of the goal to stuff it in the vacant side.

Harvard had been pressuring Heffler since senior defenseman Ben Storey tied up the game at 3-3 with 18:25 left in the third period on the power play. He shoveled a shot from the right point that found its way into the far corner.

"It took us a while to get it going," Adams said. "Once we did get it going we took it to him and I still think we deserved to win this game."

Storey, however, was only answering a Saints shorthanded goal 47 seconds earlier. Junior forward Jason Windle darted down on Prestifilippo on a breakaway. Prestifilippo snuffed Windle's first shot, but the rebound popped straight in the air, and Windle was able to bat it into the net.

The game had taken a typical Crimson progression. St. Lawrence stormed out to the gates, pinning the Harvard defense down with excellent movement in the offensive zone and strong play by its point men. In the second period, led by Allman's line, the defense clutched and grabbed to effectively slow the Saints down.

The increased physical play in the second period opened the ice for Harvard's fleet skaters to pour it on.

"After the first twelve minutes we calmed down and skated better," said Harvard Coach Ronn Tomassoni. "We increased our physical play and started to play real well from that point on."

Up until the final minute, Prestifilippo was enjoying another outstanding game. The junior standout had to dive all over the ice to hold the Saint's top line of seniors John Poapst and Bob Prier and sophomore Erik Anderson to just one goal in the first period.

He stoned Prier with 13:26 left in the second period on a hurried breakaway.

Moreover, Prestifilippo had clearly been outplaying Heffler, the ECAC's best goal-tender and strong candidate for All-American honors. The first three Crimson goals befuddled the Saint netminder, all the shots more change-ups than hard blasts.

"We thought Heffler was fighting the puck tonight," Tomassoni said.

Of course, once Harney's shot crossed the goal line, all of that became hollow praise.

"[Prestifilippo] was outstanding," Tomassoni said. "He was sharp. He made some big saves. These things happen and I'm sure he wants it back."

Chodorow opened the scoring at 1:50 of the first, flipping a backhander past Heffler. Sophomore forward Steve Moore notched the other Harvard power-play goal, floating a beautiful pass from sophomore forward Chris Bala over Heffler's blocker, at the dreaded 19:27 mark a period earlier.

Prier and Poaspst bagged the other two St. Lawrence goals.

"We played an excellent hockey game," Tomassoni said. "Our kids have nothing to hang their heads about."

No. 7 Clarkson 5, Harvard 1

Harvard opened this game in similar fashion to the previous night. Chodorow skated over the Golden Knights' blueline and ripped a shot from the just above the hashmarks past freshman goaltender Shawn Grant to give the Crimson an early 1-0 lead.

The comparisons end there.

Deflated by the previous night's heart-breaker, Harvard did not have any of the poise, energy, or toughness it would have needed to battle the top team in the ECAC.

Clarkson had little difficulty knocking off the Crimson, which hasn't won in Potsdam since a 4-3 overtime victory on Jan. 7, 1995, the year before the present seniors arrived.

"No one wanted to pay the price," Scorsune said. "Nobody wanted to take a hit, no one wanted to give a hit and that's what happens."

Harvard managed to keep it close through the first period despite getting constantly out hustled to loose pucks, rarely dispossessing a Clarkson player of the disc, and committing frequent defensive zone turnovers.

Senior forward Rob Millar's giveaway directly led to sophomore forward Murray Kuntz's goal to put Clarkson up 2-1.

"We were brutal again with the puck tonight," Tomassoni said. "We made bad decisions and when that happens, it's going to be a long night."

The official start of the long night began at 3:59 of the second with the Golden Knights on the power play.

Willie Mitchell, Clarkson's bruising standout sophomore defenseman, uncorked a massive slapshot from the left point that sailed through traffic past a well-screened Prestifilippo.

Junior forward Matt Saper finished the Crimson for the evening just over 1:20 after Mitchell's bomb. Saper buried a rebound at the side of Prestifilippo off Swedish forward Carl Drakensjo's shot from just over the blueline.

"The game was still very much a game after the first," said Chodorow, one of the few Crimson players who played well. "We needed to attack, and instead we dug ourselves a hole."

With the score 4-1, and Harvard struggling to mount any real attack--it took 11 shots on Grant in the middle period, none of them threatening--the game turned ugly.

Upset that a Clarkson player attempted to jar loose a covered puck well after the referee had blown his whistle, Prestifilippo uncharacteristically sprung up and clocked the offender.

Later, Chodorwo and sophomore defenseman Liam McCarthy traded blows with Smith and Drakensjo. The severe scuffling after the whistle continued through the end of the period.

"Toughness isn’t punching a guy after the whistle," Tomassoni said. "Toughness is winning those battles along the boards, those loose pluck confrontation. We didn't do our share of those tonight."

At least the extracurricular activities kept the second period interesting. By the third period, Harvard had nothing left in its tank and played twenty minutes of hockey as long and boring as the ride home.

The Crimson managed just two shots on Grant in the third.

"They are a very good team, "Scorsune said ."We just wore down and by the end of the game we just lost interest."

The only bright spot of the Crimson for the evening was the resiliency of Prestifilipp. He played an outstanding game, not having a chance on any Clarkson goal. "Presto" was a perfect four-of-four on Golden Knight breakaways, stoning two by sophomore sniper Eric Cole.

Prestifilipp's flashiest stop came while shorthanded--a situation which earned far more offensive opportunities than the futile Harvard power play--when Cole blazed coast-to-coast down the ice. Prestifilippo made a full split to stop the puck, which sat on the goal line for a few precarious seconds before Storey swept it away.

Notes

Prestifilippo's critical third-period miss was not the first such goal he's given up in his career at St. Lawrence. During his freshman season, Prestifilippo gave up an almost identical goal to former Boston Bruin Joel Pripic in a 6-3 Saints victory on Feb. 22, 1997. Pripic's shot came from about the same spot behind the blueline and headed toward the same end of the ice.

Millar, the team's leading scorer, left the St. Lawrence game halfway through the second period, not to return. Tomassoni would not comment on the nature of his departure, only to say he was not injured. Millar skated on Saturday.

The bad blood in the Clarkson game began before play even began. During warm-ups, freshman forward Kyle Clark got into a heated verbal and shoving match with Clarkson senior defenseman Nate Strong. Both players received 10-minute misconduct penalties.

Strong, however, had yet to play in a game all year. He was only dressed for the pre-game skate around because it was Senior Night in Potsdam.