But this time, the other team just didn't seem interested in fighting back.

At one particular point, the referee raised his arm to signal a penalty against the Crimson, and the RPI forwards--even as their goalie rushed to the bench to be replaced by an extra skater--dumped the puck into the Harvard zone and skated off for a line change, without even trying to convert the extra-man situation.

Holy smokes.

Smoke Signals

What was their message? Did RPI's loss to Dartmouth the night before--a defeat which cost the Troy team a chance at its third straight ECAC regular season crown--leave them so shellshocked?

Perhaps. Or were the Engineers acknowledging the changing of the guard in the conference: we're not as good as we were last year, and you, Harvard, are clearly the best in the ECAC, so what's the point.

Was it that predictable, that inevitable?

"We came into the game realizing that Harvard had the superior playing talent," RPI Coach Mike Addesa said. "We're a little thin the year and we're missing two of our best players.

"I said before the season started that Harvard was the best team in the country. I say that again."

The RPI mentor, who last year was talking about a trip to the NCAA Final Four in the middle of the regular season, has certainly changed his tune. Asked what it would take for his squad to win the ECAC Championship--read beat Harvard--at the post-season tournament, Addesa said, "You can pray for a lot of miracles and it would take a lot of miracles."

With the coach talking about divine intervention, and describing Harvard's destiny in the same well-scripted phrases he used a year ago to glorify his own team's 38-game unbeaten ride to a place in history, it isn't any wonder that his Engineers performed as they did Saturday night.

While Addesa was down on his knees, the players fell on their faces.