Anyone's mind, that is, except that of the Harvard hockey leprechaun and a goaltender by the name of Wade Lau.
Lau turned aside 15 B.C. shots on that second Monday--none of them easy saves and some of them very tough--to lead his team to a 2-0 victory and its first Beanpot title since 1977. The performance earned Lau, who had shut down two of the East's most potent offenses, the tournament's Most Valuable Player Award.
The supporting cast, led by Eagle netminder Bob O'Connor--who matched Lau save for save--and including the Harvard defensemen, the Harvard forwards, the entire B.C. squad and the guy who drove the Zamboni, was equally spectacular, producing what Harvard coach Bill Cleary calls "an almost perfect hockey game."
Harvard's first goal came from an unlikey source. Forward Bill Larson, recently called up from the J.V. and known more for his checking than his scoring, picked up an errant pass just in front of the net and poked it past O'Connor at the 12:41 mark of the opening stanza. It was sophomore Larson's third varsity goal.
And then for approximately 45 minutes, two college hockey teams skated their hearts out, spurred on by two college goalies hopping and flopping--and stopping anything that near to the goal mouth.
"At times, on the bench in the second period," says Eagle coach Len Ceglarski, "when the game went four or five minutes without a whistle. I'd say to myself. 'I'd like to be up in the third row of the balcony watching this one myself.' It was just a tremendous hockey game."
The ice--as in the scoring drought and also that which cooled the Harvard champagne--was broken with just less than two minutes to go in the final period. Harvard wing Dave Burke unleashed a bullet to O'Connor's left that clanged off the cross bar and fell into the net, for a two-goal Harvard lead.
What followed was a sight to behold. The entire Harvard bench stormed onto the ice, piling on top of Burke, rejoicing for more than a minute to the dismay of the B.C. squad and the referee. Finally the ice was cleared, the last two minutes played, and the Beanpot was in the arms of Harvard captain Murray, who was in the arms of Harvard coach Cleary.
The locker room after the game a cubical crowded with pens and cameras, microphones and questions. The grins on the faces of the Harvard players, grins that said. "We believed, and we made you believe."
Those grins, unlike the one from the week before were very nice to see.