Memo to Yale: Forget about ever winning at Bright Hockey Center. You will never win there.

The Bulldogs have never picked up a W at Harvard's current home rink, and they didn't last night, either. For Harvard's enthusiastic crowd, at 3,114 one of the season's largest, last night's game was definitely worth the price of admission.

The Harvard men's hockey team, coming off a Beanpot first-round game that featured two strong initial periods followed by a disastrous finale, put that unfortunate ending behind them and played a solid, aggressive game last night.

Indeed, during the first pair of periods, the Crimson displayed a tenacity that left the Bulldogs with their tails between their legs.

Harvard made a living off of strong forechecking in the neutral zone that in turn created opportunities for manadvantage rushes at the Yale defensemen. One of the Crimson's first quality scoring opportunities came on a Jamin Kerner steal at center ice, which he promptly dumped to Rob Millar, who let fly a shot from directly in front of Yale netminder Alex Westlund (19 saves).

Harvard to Yale in the neutral zone: excuse us, but we'll take that puck now.

Not three minutes later, Craig MacDonald borrowed a puck from a hapless Fido at center ice and fired his own guided missile at Westlund, who deflected it.

But Harvard was not finished with the John Dillinger act yet.

Harvard's first tally again was set up by strong forechecking in the Bulldog zone. Doug Sproule was the culprit this time, grabbing the suddenly loose puck and getting it to his good buddy Craig Adams, who beat Westlund.

The rout was on!

Okay, it wasn't a rout. But at that point, Harvard owned the game.

That Pez dispenser on Westlund's chest--seen the Yale unis lately?--was looking more and more like a bullseye.

Harvard was playing heads-up hockey at center ice, but for the first two periods, Harvard's offense was clicking on all cylinders.

The second goal was a case in point, featuring some of the most crisp, alert passing the has displayed all year.

"Doug Sproule made a beautiful pass and Trevor [Allman] finished it off," Harvard coach Ronn Tomassoni said. "And it was a power play goal, which is so important for our confidence."