Harvard men's hockey goalie Allain Roy sat motionless in the net Saturday night, as sophomore forward Chris Baird, fellow goalie Chuckie Hughes and Coach Ronn Tomassoni somberly crossed the ice to console him.

This year's ECAC goalie champion (his second title in four years), Roy had just finished making 37 saves against Rensselaer in the ECAC quarterfinals--an exemplary performance by most standards.

But one save eluded him.

RPI sophomore forward Jeff Gabriel pushed a loose rebound around Roy's right leg, 8:09 into overtime Saturday, to give the eighth-seeded Engineers a surprise 4-3 victory over the top-seeded Crimson.

After the game, Roy--and the rest of the Crimson--could not hold back their tears.

"You always think you can stop every shot," a doleful Roy said. "When that shot went in, it felt like my world ended. These guys are my life."

The Crimson (14-7-6 overall) had good reason to mourn: With the loss, all hopes of a post-season action were likely dashed.

Harvard needed to win or, at the very least, make a respectable showing in the conference playoffs to guarantee an NCAA playoff berth.

Now, 11th-ranked Harvard, which fell out of favor with the pollsters after dropping two games last weekend, is only a longshot to secure one of the 12 NCAA bids, which will be announced in two weeks.

"I don't know what to say. I'm disappointed, very disappointed," Tomassoni said. "I'm still proud of this team. We earned that number-one seed. It's tough to work all year for one game."

The NCAA bids "were really the furthest thing from my mind," the coach said. "Hopefully, they'll look at it from the standpoint that we were the conference champions."

RPI (14-14-4 overall) will play in the Garden this Friday, joining New York rivals Clarkson, Cornell and St. Lawrence at Hockeyfest '92.

What Went Wrong

Harvard looked ready to break open the game numerous times Saturday night, but the Engineers kept up physical pressure on the Crimson.

Heading into the third period, Harvard clung to a 3-2 lead, courtesy of goals by freshman forward Steve Martins (2) and senior defender Rich Defreitas.