Despite the roller-coaster ride that the 1994-95 season was, Harvard still finished in third place in the ECAC, good enough to play RPI at home in a first-to-three points series. A tie Friday night produced a winner-take-all Saturday night affair, where RPI goalie Mike Tamburro stood on his head to propel the Engineers onward (and eventually to the ECAC tournament crown). But for the Crimson it market the end of a certainly atypical year, marked by big wins in big rinks but lacking the consistency seen in past champions.

"It's too bad NCAA tournament bids aren't given out in terms of effort," Harvard coach Ronn Tomassoni said, and indeed it holds true for this year's squad.

Blessed with a host of talent and some enthusiastic young faces, Harvard never quite came into sync as a unit, as brief glimpses of greatness showed themselves to be far too rare.

"We just had a difficult time putting the puck in the net." Tomassoni said. "It's hard to win hockey games with one or two goals."

For the seniors, they leave Harvard hockey in the same fashion they left their freshman year: losing to RPI in a thrilling game at the Bright Center.

Harvard will lose eight players: goalie Steve Hermsdorf; forwards Martins, captain Ben Coughlin, Perry Cohagan, Cory Gustafson and Keith McLean; defensemen Bryan Lon singer and Michel Breistroff.

So with the end of one season begins the hope for the future of another. Although no All-Americans will return to the roster next year, a strong incoming freshman class, along with a plethora of experienced talent, should provide a good foundation for success. The Crimson went 13-15-2 a year before progressing to the NCAA final in 1983, so anything is possible.

But unfortunately for the 1994-95 squad, a strong effort didn't necessarily produce the desired results.