While Harvard's offense had its heroes, theteam defense was even more domination almost everynight. The Crimson forechecked, backchecked andused its team speed in almost every game to putthe opposition's offense out of sync.
Harvard came away from the Yale Whale with a12-1 win--its first victory in New Haven in manyyears--but the most impressive stat of the nightwas that the Bulldogs could muster only 11 shotson goal for the entire game.
The three most important victories were alsokeyed by killer defense--those games were theBeanpot opener against Boston University, the ECACtournament final against RPI and the NCAAquarterfinal against the University of NewHampshire.
The Terriers managed just nine shots on goal inthe first two periods and 17 for the game againstHarvard on February 7, as the Crimson went on to a4-2 victory before 14,448 mostly pro-BU fans atthe Boston Garden.
RPI, which was one of the five teams to defeatHarvard this year, was stifled by Harvard'sdefense and Israel's 21 saves at Lake Placid in a3-0 Crimson victory, Harvard's first ECACtournament championship since 1987.
And in its final victory of the year, theHarvard 'D' allowed only 11 UNH shots through twoperiods at Albany, N.Y. This defense led to afive-goal Harvard outburst in a seven-minute spanin the third period in give the Crimson a 7-1 winand a berth in the NCAA semifinals.
Harvard faced Lake Superior State in the Finalat St. Paul, Minn.,, and outplayed the Lakes overthe first 40 minutes, but only Farrell could solveLaker goalie Blaine Lacher in that span.
Lake State came out flying in the third periodand broke a 1-1 tie, but McCann scored apower-play goal less than two minutes later toknot the game at two apiece. The more experiencedLaker squad seized the momentum, however, andallowed no more than one quality Harvard shot forthe remainder of the game. And its solidforechecking led to a breakaway goal 4:16 intoovertime to end Harvard's season.
It was certainly a tough way to end the season,but a loss to the eventual national championscould not take anything away from the wonderfulseason that Harvard had.
MEN'S ICE HOCKEY
Record: 24-5-4
Ivy League: 12-0-1
Key Players: Steve Martins (25 goals, 35assists), Chris Baird (6 goals, 38 assists), AaronIsrael (354 saves,.898 save%)Seniors: Sean Wenham, Sean McCann, ChrisBaird, Lou Body, Brian Farrell, Ian Kennish