HANOVER, N.H.--Harvard men's hockey Coach Ronn Tomassoni paced around outside the Crimson locker room like a wounded bull, searching for some way to take out a frustration that was starkly self-evident.
Finally he stopped, and in an all-too-knowing voice mumbled, "We got what we deserved tonight."
When you skate on thin ice for too long, it will eventually cave in on you. After surviving two ominously close calls last week at Cornell and Colgate, the luck of the Crimson (18-3-2, 15-2-2 ECAC) finally ran out last night, as Dartmouth (10-13-0, 8-11-0 ECAC) shocked the third-ranked Crimson here in Thompson Arena, 4-3.
The loss, coupled with RPI's defeat of Cornell, means that the Crimson are still a point shy of clinching the top seed in the ECAC postseason tournament.
But as Tomassoni would quickly tell you, that is the future and this is now. Big Green Captain Peter Clark struck the telling blow seven seconds into the third period--his freak shorthanded goal put Dartmouth ahead to stay in what would be its first win over the Crimson since 1981, a span of 23(!) games.
Tomassoni's postgame irateness can be traced to his proclamation last Saturday that the Crimson was "playing down to the level of the competition."
"You play that game, it's a dangerous game, and it catches up to you," he said. "I give Dartmouth all the credit in the world--they played a heck of a hockey game.
"But we've been playing this game too long; last weekend we did not play well overall as a team, and you start believing that you're a little better than you are, this is what happens. We definitely did not play well tonight."
Captain Ted Drury echoed that sentiment in a solemn and reflective Harvard locker room after the game. "We didn't play that well; there's nothing you can really say about it. We haven't played our best for a couple of games now, and you don't play your best, you don't win."
The Crimson certainly had its chances to draw level, even after Dartmouth junior Scott Fraser scored his second goal of the game with 16:38 left. But the power play, so potent against Colgate (three goals), drew a blank in 5:51 of man-up time.
"We had trouble putting it in the net tonight," Drury said. "We need to make a few adjustments for tomorrow [at Vermont] and see how it goes."
For a while, though, it looked as if this Shakespearean tragedy had more of a comedic bent.
The first period was a laugh, offensively, with penalties and icing goals marring any kind of rhythm from developing for both teams. Not even 1:17 of 4-on-3 power-action could rouse the Crimson forwards from their prolonged slumber.
And Dartmouth goalie Mike Bracco was equally asleep at the switch at his own end--on three separate occasions, his misplays of Harvard clearing attempts almost wound up behind him for goals.
It took an oddball goal from Harvard junior Brian Farrell to enliven things a bit. Taking a faceoff to the right of Bracco, Farrell won the draw, slipped with the puck through two Green defensemen, and fired quickly past Bracco low to his glove side to open the scoring at 17:55.
But a late penalty to defender Michel Breistroff greased the skids of the Big Green attack--at the start of the second period, Dartmouth collected two goals in 37 seconds to snatch the lead back, 2-1.
With two seconds left on Breistroff's penalty, junior Matt Collins wristed a shot that seemed to catch Crimson netminder Aaron Israel unawares, slipping by his out-stretched leg at 1:47.
Shortly thereafter, a defensive giveaway resulted in a break for the Green's Scott Fraser; his top-shelf finish meant that for the third straight game, the Crimson faced an uphill battle against a second-tier ECAC foe.
But this team knows how to battle, often through the employment of some of the more obscure weapons in its arsenal. This time, it was defenseman Bryan Lonsinger who brought Harvard back from another brink, scoring from the right point to knot the score at two-all on what was only his second goal of the year.
Alas, on this night, heroes were too few and too far between for the Crimson.
The real killer was Clark's shortie--a harmless Dartmouth clearing attempt ricocheted off of the backboards to the crease, where Israel and defenseman Derek Maguire made enough of a mess of it to allow Clark to walk in and five-hole the gift.
That goal, coupled with Fraser's second goal of the game just over three minutes later, provided a deficit not even President Clinton could erase. Drury's goal at the 13:50 mark would be too little, too late in the face of the inspired Dartmouth forechecking.
And with Christian Soucy between the pipes for Vermont tomorrow night against the Crimson, Harvard's projected #2 seed in the East could be in some serious jeopardy.
Drury, for one, isn't ready to push the panic button yet.
"Well, we're never happy when we lose, but I don't think it will affect us in the long run," Drury said. "You're not gonna win all your games, and we've been lucky to win most of them. We've just gotta bounce back tomorrow night." First Period Har--Farrell, 17:55. Second Period Dart--Collins (Geary, DelCarmine), 1:47 (PP). Dart--Fraser, 2:24. Har--Lonsinger (Drury, Farrell), 4:35. Third Period Dart--Clark, :07 (SH). Dart--Fraser, 3:22 Har--Drury (Maguire), 13:50. Sevear Har--Israel 8-14-3-25. Dart--Bracco 13-10. 12-35.
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