BOSTON--The collective jaws of Harvard Hockey dropped in unison--of course, it's never supposed to end like this. Watching the other guys hold aloft the trophy destined for their possession precious few minutes earlier, wearing their imitation Crimson jerseys and flaunting the same sheep-eating grins the good guys had worn only one week earlier.
But when you play Goalie Roulette in the late stretches of sudden death overtime, as legs and hearts give way to hopeful belief in a stone wall covering all 24 square feet of the mesh at your end of the ice, sometimes the odds beat you. Even when the gun's chamber is supposed to be empty.
Tom Ashe's game-winner seemed so innocuous--with nobody to pass to in the Harvard zone, he flicked the puck on net and goalie Aaron Israel, hardly expecting his dice roll to come up snake-eyes. A simple dump-in, nothing more. But suddenly, the clock froze at 1:55, the red siren blared, and the Beanpot final was over.
2-1. Boston College. In sudden death.
Harvard fell to 15-4-2 overall, remaining in first place in ECAC play at 12-2-2. Boston College improved to 12-12-3, sticking to the Hockey East cellar at 4-10-3. And Harvard failed for the seventh time in trying to repeat as Beanpot champions. But the emotion of the moment would be lost given just these numbers.
"A heartbreaker," Harvard Coach Ronn Tomassoni said, eyes gazing into space. "I'm still as proud of this team as I was last Monday night, and I know we'll bounce back--we've got a hell of a hockey team."
To reinforce that message to his rink general, he jumped off the Harvard bench to console Israel as he trudged to the Harvard bench. The message for his distraught sophomore: Hold your head up, Izzy.
"There's no reason Aaron should be hanging his head tonight--he played one hell of a hockey game," he said. "Both goaltenders did."
But it was indeed Greg Taylor who got the honors, every bit the equal of the more heralded Israel, and when the money was on the table and final hands were played, he won this Las Vegas duel and all the accolades that go with it.
Beanpot MVP.
Most Valuable Goaltender in the "That's kinda gravy...as long as we win theBeanpot, I don't care about individual honors,"Taylor said. But he'll want to remember this nightfor the rest of his life . As will Ashe, who in scoring only his secondgoal of the year, unassisted at 8:05 of OT, got"easily the biggest goal of my career," in hiswords. "Definitely a flukey goal--I was pulling upfor a trailer, and I didn't see anybody so I putit on net. "I guess the goalie had moved a little bit...Iwasn't really looking for a goal, but I got luckand it went in. With both goalies playing so well,we knew it was going to be a lucky bounce whichdecided the game," he said. And Israel's reward for his 23-saveperformance, which by all rights got the Crimsoninto that overtime? Having to stand beforereporters and answer what happened to let thatsecond goal in. "I made a judgment call expecting [Ashe] topass across, and he didn't," Israel said. "[Am Iupset with myself?] No, not at all. I played agood game out there." Both goaltenders carried the play in a sluggishfirst twenty minutes--23 players were on the icefor their first Beanpot final, and the nervousnessshowed in all but two of them, namely Israel andTaylor. Only fourteen shots were fired between thetwo teams in the period, but Israel come up hugeat its end, robbing Greg Callahan with ahighlight-reel lunging pad save. "BC just took it to us [early], and we didn'trespond well enough," captain Sean McCann said. "Idon't want to make excuses and say fatigue was thereason, but some nights you just don't get all thebounces." Harvard was playing its third game in fournights, but it pressed forward to get the keyfirst goal. McCann scored at 14:10 of the secondon the power play for his 13th goals of the year,which eerily came with John Joyce in the Eaglepenalty box for tripping at 13:13 of the second.Steve Martins drew the defense to him and foundMcCann in deep at the goal line; the defensemanfound the top shelf, and Harvard led 1-0. That slim one-goal lead lasted achingly closeto game's end, but it wasn't to be. With 8:09 toplay, BC Coach Steve Cedorchuk called his timeoutattempting to stem the flow of Harvard'sthird-period momentum, and the ploy workedperfectly. The pendulum swung back to Harvard's end of theice, and it was Don Chase who capitalized on thepersistent Eagle forecheck, taking a feed from RobLaFerriere and beating Israel high frompoint-blank range with only 4:32 remaining. And BC carried that edge in the play intoovertime, generating most of the extra period'schances before Ashe administered the death blow. "[But] we'll turn this into a positive," McCannsaid. "We're a tough team mentally and physically,and we'll bounce back. It's going to be hard toget over, but we've got two important game comingup this weekend..."BOSTON COLLEGE, 2-1 (In OT) at Boston Garden BC 0 0 1 1 -- 2Harvard 0 1 0 0 -- 1 First Period No scoring. Second Period Har--McCann 13 (Martins, Maguire) 14:10. (PPG) Third Period BC Chase 8 (Hymovitz, Laferriere) 15:28. Overtime BC--Ashe 2 (unassisted) 8:05. Saves: BC--Taylor 5-9-10-2-26;Har--Israel 9-7-4-3-23. Power Play: BC--0 for 3; Har--1 for 5. Attendance: 14,,448.
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