"Our kids played a helluva hockey game," said Harvard coach Bill Cleary. "But their goalie won the game for them."
Won the game for them, coach? Granted, Yale netminder Paul Tortorella was his team's saving grace, with 36 stops including seven tough-to-unbelievable ones in overtime. But, more than 3350 spectators--the largest crowd of the year--would swear they saw Harvard and Yale play to a 1-1 tie at Bright Center Saturday night.
And those 3000-plus didn't miss a moment of perhaps the most exciting game in the rink's three-year history.
However, the coach's minor slip of the tongue was more than appropriate, for the tie game--normally an indicator of nothing lost and nothing gained--sets back Harvard only slightly less than a loss in the icemen's quest for an ever-slipping-away playoff spot.
Harvard (6-7-2 ECAC), whose only real playoff chance is to take the Ivy Division title, now has just six ECAC contests left and still trails first-place Yale (8-6-1) by a game and a half. In addition, Cornell (7-6-1), with two wins over the weekend, has now passed the icemen and moved into second place in the division, just a half game behind the Elis. Of its remaining games, Harvard has two with Cornell and one with Yale.
"We just about have to win all of our remaining games if we want to make the playoffs," Cleary said.
The Crimson certainly played well enough to beat just about anybody short of the AHL on Saturday night, dominating the Elis from the opening face-off right through the ten-minute scoreless overtime period.
Harvard outshot Yale in every period but the second, including 11-2 in the third and 7-4 in the overtime. But again and again, Tortorella was there to pickpocket the Crimson forwards.
The first stanza went scoreless, but Harvard was not without its chances. At the 12:02 mark winger Scott Powers rushed into try and flip a bouncing puck into an open net. Somehow the puck missed, and at the same time Tortorella upended Powers, who smashed his knee on the far post and had to be helped off the ice. His status for the rest of the season is uncertain.
Three minutes later, just as a Harvard power-play was ending, a Mark Fusco drive hit the post behind the Yale netminder.
Yale tallied its lone goal on the night at 4:25 of the second, when wing Ed McManus skated in front to Wade Lau's right side and pushed the puck back across and into the left side of the net.
Shortly after Yale's all-time leading scorer, Dan Poliziani, went off for a hold 20 seconds into period three, the Harvard powerplay woke up to tie the game at one. A low Alan Litchfield snapshot from the point beat Tortorella to the glove side at 1:56, and from then on it was hold-onto-your-helmet hockey.
In the last four minutes of regulation, Harvard's Phil Falcone, Mike Watson and Scott Fusco were all stopped by Tortorella from point blank range.
And in the overtime, the story was much the same. Harvard had a plethora of opportunities, the best one only ten seconds into the period when Tortorella buried a Tony Visone drive in his pads, and covered up in a crowd in front of the net. Greg Olson, Mark Fusco and Scott Fusco all had similar chances, but Tortorella proved too quick on each occasion.
THE NOTEBOOK: The stars of the game, as selected by the Cambridge media: Tortorella, Scott Fusco and Mark Fusco...Harvard and Yale have now tied in four of their last five meetings...Freshman wing Brian Busconi had his best game of the year for Harvard, hustling up and down ice all night...Harvard will get little consolation from tonight's Beanpot consolation game with Northeastern at 6:15 at the Boston Garden...Lau had 26 saves in the Crimson nets, but only saw six Eli shots in the last 30 minutes...In the second period, Greg Olson, skating at full speed, slammed into the crossbar of the Yale net and flipped over the back. He was uninjured. Scoring: Y. Ed McManus (Kevin Conley, Jim Sheiner) 4:25; H. Alan Litchfield (Neil Sheehy, Jim Turner) 1:56. Saves: H. Wade Lau 24; Y. Paul Tortorella, 35. Attendance--3350.
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