Harvard's all-time leading scorer skated off the ice and never returned.

Meitner's second shot, this one using his stick, knotted the score at 4-4 late in the third period.

And his final blast burst under McEvoy's legs to send the Knights home with a 5-4 overtime triumph.

End of game. End of regular season. End of Harvard's winning streak and its long journey through the valley of invinciblity.

And the end, for the time being at least, of Fusco's Firing Line, which also includes Smith and MacDonald.

And while Meitner's effort earned him this week's ECAC Player of the Week award and his team the fifth seed in the league tournament, Fusco is now recovering with his left arm in a sling.

If fifth-place Clarkson can beat Harvard, why can't eighth-place Colgate?

For several reasons.

The Crimson has the ECAC's and the nation's leading goaltender in Grant Blair. The senior owns a 2.70 national goals-against average and an even more impressive 2.47 league average. He stops nine out of every ten shots that come his way and has held opponents to three or fewer goals in 12 of his last 13 starts.

Blair, who recorded 30 saves in his final start of the season in the Crimson's 7-3 victory over St. Lawrence last Friday, is a prime candidate for All-American Honors. Draper, his chief rival for that tribute, is second among the nation's goalies with a 2.95 goals-against average.

"Grant came up big," Cleary said after the St. Lawrence game. "And that's the key. He's been doing that all year. I wouldn't trade him for anyone."

Blair also has a strong defensive corps in front of him, led by Mark Benning and Randy Taylor.

And Harvard's offense is not impotent without Fusco. Harvard has three other players on the ECAC's list of the top-10 scorers. They are Smith (18 goals, 20 assists), Tim Barakett (15, 20) and Bourbeau (17, 16).

Greg Chalmers, Bourbeau's replacement, has come on strong in the sophomore's absence. In 10 games since returning to the club after taking the first semester off, Chalmers has chalked up seven goals and four assists. He had three goals last weekend, two in the Crimson's victory over the Larries.

Colgate, on the other hand, boasts merely the league's eighth-rated goalie, Dan Delianedis (owner of a 4.82 goals-against average), and its sixth highest scorer, Gerald Waslen (14 goals, 21 assists).