Peter Chiarelli said it best.

"It was exactly like practice."

Harvard's 11-0 victory over RPI, the defending ECAC and national champions, Saturday night at Bright Center resembled nothing so much as a two-hour drill.

"They backed off all night," Harvard Captain Scott Fusco, who recorded five assists during the festival and edged to within three helpouts of breaking the all-time Harvard assist mark of 127. "It was almost like they were trying to lose."

Fusco captured what was the most disconcerting thing about a really unnerving evening. The visitors seemed numb--like 21 wind-up red, white and silver mannequins oblivious of time and place.

Down four goals after the first period, RPI didn't choose to try to forecheck the Crimson. No pressure at all. The Engineers would often just skate down, toss the puck deep into the Harvard end and line up on the blue line.

Just like practice.

No RPI forwards would even break in and try to pick up the puck once they threw it in the zone. They just stood still like well-programmed robots at the blue line, waiting for Harvard to bring the biscuit back out.

And inevitably to put it in the back of the RPI net.

"I don't know what their coach was doing," Crimson goalie Grant Blair asked after posting two shutout periods and lowering his nation's best goals-against average to 2.69.

"It's hard to believe," said forward Tim Barakett, who scored two power play goals although he doesn't normally play on the power play. "They played awful and they were terribly coached."

Just disbelief. It was so lopsided.

All six goalies played in the whatever-it-was. Four--Blair, Dickie McEvoy and John Devin of Harvard as well as John (the 145-second wonder) Haley of RPI--were perfect and allowed no goals. Two--Brian Jopling and Tony Martino--were awful and gave up 11 goals in their 58 minutes of play before they yielded to Haley.

"I kept going `holy smokes,"' Harvard Coach Bill Cleary said. "I would just sit there and shake my head and say, `holy smokes."'

The Crimson was good, seizing every opportunity for two periods and the Crimson was lucky, watching every bounce go its way. All that has happened before.