M. Hockey Takes Advantage of Mediocrity

If someone had told me that Harvard would come away from this weekend with a split, I wouldn't have been too disappointed. Right in the hunt for home ice, the Crimson's third-place standing gives Harvard a little breathing room.

However, I don't think anyone would have predicted two squandered leads and a 3-2 loss to Union, a mediocre team fighting for its playoff life.

"We had a chance to take a step on the league this weekend, but we lost that opportunity," rookie winger Tim Pettit said.

The Skating Dutchmen, looking to overcome a demoralizing 2-2 knot with conference bottom-feeder Brown--who has already bowed out of the playoffs for the seventh straight year--snapped the Crimson's two-game win streak with a gritty come-from-behind victory.

"I think it was perhaps the best 60 minutes of hockey we've played all season," Union coach Kevin Sneddon '92 said.

To Union's credit, the Dutchmen executed its game plan perfectly. Known for being a disruptive tam, especially through the neutral zone, Union took away Harvard's ability to play an open-ice game and forced the Crimson to adopt a dump-and-chase style to compensate.

"Our line always tries to work as hard as it can, but they put three guys across the blueline," Pettit said. "We just never ended up with the puck in the offensive zone. About three of four times we were able to cycle the puck and get it down low, but unfortunately those times were very few and far between."

Despite turning in a sub-par performance, Harvard still maintained the lead after two periods. Union capitalized on the Crimson's sloppy defensive tactics and equalized a 1-0 lead in the second period and a 2-1 lead in the third. The perservering Union squad then notched the game-winner at 7:38.

Dutchmen winger Jason Ralph one-timed a pass from linemate Clark Jones from the center of the right circle that went high past Jonas, the second top-shelf tally on Jonas in 22 seconds.

The loss to Union put a damper on what began as a solid weekend. The Crimson started off its stint in the Capital District strongly with a 1-0 blanking of Rensselaer Friday night at Houston Field House.

"We're like a tidal wave," Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni said. "We have our highs, and we have our lows, and only time is going to change that."

A gritty win over the snake-bitten Engineers was exactly what the doctor ordered, giving Harvard it's first season sweep over R.P.I. since the 1995-96 season, and senior goaltender Oli Jonas's second shutout of the season.

"We'll take a 1-0 win over R.P.I. any day," Jonas said. "We needed that win. think that means we'll have home ice. Now we're fired up."

The Crimson claimed revenge as well, considering that its victory all but sends R.P.I. on the road for the first round of the playoffs, the exact fate that the Engineers handed Harvard last season with a 2-0 blanking over the Crimson at the end of the the stretch run.

While the victory itself was not a complete shock, the scoreboard certainly was. Both teams are notorious for playing fast-skating, open-ice games, but it took only a single goal to hold R.P.I. at bay.

Senior center Harry Schwefel left a drop pass for sophomore winger Brett Nowak at the blueline. Unattended, Nowak stickhandled the puck to the center of the right circle and fired a soft shot past rookie netminder Nathan Marsters to hit the twine at 3:31.

The heart-breaker for the down-trodden Engineers came at 13:46 in the final frame. Killing off a 5-on-3 disadvantage, R.P.I. center Jim Henkel nabbed the puck in the neutral zone and flew in on a short-handed breakaway. Henkel had Jonas down and beaten, but Jonas used his cat-like reflexes to rob Henkel of R.P.I.'s best scoring opportunity all night.

"It was like Dominic Hasek," Mazzoleni said. "And it's not the first time he's made that type of a save for us. It's a compliment to him because he doesn't quit on the play. He knew he was down and out, but he continued to battle."

Looking at the big picture, the Crimson's discouraging defeat on Saturday does little to affect the overall conference positions. Harvard shook Dartmouth off its back and moved into a tie for third place with Cornell, leaving the Big Green alone in fifth place.

However, it wasn't so much the Crimson's split last weekend that moved Harvard into the third slot. Rather, the Crimson owe their ranking to the remarkable parity among the remaining 11 teams vying for playoff spots. As this weekend demonstrated, just about every team in this league is capable of beating every other squad in the conference.

Friday night witnessed six hotly contested matchups, with every ECAC team battling to a one-goal game or a tie. Saturday's games were a bit more wide open, but featured a handful of key upsets and victories. While Union toppled Harvard, Princeton defeated a fledgling Vermont squad and an inconsistent Yale squad moved in to sixth place by ringing up the Big Green 6-3.

The most important game for the Crimson was the marquee matchup between Clarkson and Cornell. A surgling Clarkson squad kept pace with St. Lawrence at the top of the pack by downing Cornell 2-0. The Big Red suffered a sweep at the hands of the North Country duo, allowing Harvard to move within striking distance.

Thanks to these results, Harvard has not surprisingly guaranteed itself a spot in post-season play. With only two regular seasons left in the season, it is impossible for the ECAC's bottom three squads--Union, Vermont, and Colgate--to surpass the Crimson's 23 points.

"It's where we want to be," Mazzoleni said. "But we have to give a better effort this weekend than we did last weekend."

Yet Harvard has not solidified home ice for the playoffs just yet. Sweeping this past weekend would have effectively given the Crimson a first-round seed in its own barn, a feat this team hasn't accomplished since it earned home ice against Colgate four years ago.

If the Crimson wants to secure its playoff berth and possibly steal third place from the Big Red, it needs to drop both Yale and Princeton in its last regular season homestand. Although the Elis and the Tigers have been rather inconsistent all season, both teams are battling for playoff spots and are coming off excellent weekends.

Yale picked up four points over Vermont and Dartmouth, while Princeton stole three from the Catamounts and the Big Green. Harvard is going to need to replicate its recent performance against the Saints to ensure a pair of victories.

"There's no question--that's gotta be two wins this weekend," Pettit said. "We're in the position where we can't worry about what everyone else is doing. We need to concentrate on what we're doing. We need to win these two games, otherwise we're shooting for home ice."