The defense was down.

Cornell hit hard.

And the frozen fish were flying everywhere.

Nevertheless, the young Harvard men's hockey team managed to escape the deafening Lynah Rink last night with a 2-2 overtime tie against an aggressive Cornell hockey team.

Cornell tied the game up at 7:02 of the third period, when Captain Ryan Hughes stuffed a loose puck in by goalie Chuckie Hughes.

The two teams battled through the final period and into the overtime session, with neither side able to secure an advantage. Cornell kept the pressure on the Crimson, but Harvard got the defensive breaks when it needed them.

Harvard had three good opportunities of its own in the final moments, but Cornell's oversized sophomore goalie, Parris Duffus, kept the Crimson offense at bay with his gutsy play.

Indeed, the Crimson had more than the skillful Cornell team to overcome. After the Big Red tied it up, the 3822 faithful kept their team in high gear with their characteristically obnoxious (obscene?) antics.

Cornell was assessed a two-minute minor at the start of the third period because the fans kept lofting frozen fish onto the ice.

"With a lot of young guys, I think we got rattled," senior defenseman Rich DeFreitas said. "It was their first experience up here but we showed good poise."

"This is a difficult place to play in," Coach Ronn Tomassoni said. "We wanted a win, but I tip my hat to the freshmen because we didn't fold."

The most difficult hurdle for the Crimson, however, was injuries. Seniors Kevin Sneddon, Brian McCormack and Allain Roy were forced to sit the night out. In fact, Harvard suited up only five blueliners--giving double shifts to sophomore Derek Maguire--and the strain showed.

"It hurt us late in the game. We had a lot of trouble getting the puck out of the zone," DeFreitas said.

The tie dropped Harvard (4-1-2 ECAC, overall) to fourth place in the ECAC, behind Yale, Clarkson and St. Lawrence, respectively.

In the first period, Harvard's skeleton defense kept Cornell silent, while the offense went to work. The Crimson ended its woeful power-play drought when junior Steve Flomnehoft tipped in a Sean McCann wristshot goal at 7:53.

Budding star Ben Coughlin added another goal five minutes later--a beautiful short-handed play with Steve Martins--to put the Crimson up 2-0.

The pace slowed down in the second period, and Harvard struggled to capitalize on its chances. Meanwhile, the penalties mounted. Nine infractions were registered in the second frame (five for Harvard, four for Cornell).

Cornell cut the Crimson lead to one at 7:53 on a Shaun Hannah power-play tally. The Harvard defense held firm for the rest of the period, however, killing Cornell's five-on-three advantage late in the session