Stickmen Lose Another, 4-1

Harvard's hockey team combined a miss-the-open-net offense with a non-existent defense to end its 16-8-1 season on a sour note Saturday night, falling to U.N.H., 4-1.

The Crimson was obviously not too inspired for a consolation game after losing to B.U. in the ECAC semis on Friday night, 3-1. For the seventh time this season, Harvard outshot the opposition and still lost, as the Wildcats' goalie, Bob Smith, came up with a tournament record 38 saves.

Harvard goalie Joe Bertagna was tested 26 times. The four shots that beat him were all the product of poor Harvard coverage in front of the net.

There was only one cheerful moment for Harvard all night--Jay Riley ended a year long scoring drought. Riley stuffed in the rebound of Tommy Paul's shot at 8:59 of the first period, tying the game at 1-1 and briefly exciting a pitifully small turnout of Harvard fans scattered through the three-quarters empty Garden.

Frustration

Harvard went on to outshoot the Wildcats 16-9 for the period, but U.N.H. scored what proved to be the winning goal less than a minute after Riley's one and only score of the season. Harvard clearly lacked any scoring touch, as Bob McManama agonizingly proved late in the period by missing a completely open net.

The Wildcats picked up another goal in the second period, once again exploiting poor Harvard coverage to take a 3-1 lead at 15:21. New Hampshire's fourth and final goal came at 5:21 of the third, as the Wildcats' John Grey notched his second goal of the night, drilling home a five-footer while the Harvard defense looked on.

Both of Grey's tallies came off the power play, marking the fourth and fifth goals allowed by Harvard's penalty killers in two nights.

Harvard had one final moment of frustration late in the third period. With U.N.H. goalie Smith caught 20 feet out of the goal for the second time during the game, third-liner Bobby Havern took a slapshot at the lone defenseman guarding the open net and missed the cage.

Harvard has a tradition of lacklustre consolation games. Two years ago, B.U. bombed the Crimson in the ECAC consolations, 8-2, and a miserable Northeastern team almost upended Harvard in the Beanpot consolations before losing in overtime, 4-3. This Christmas, the Crimson trailed Penn in the third period of the St. Louis tournament consolation game, but woke up in time to win, 7-4.

U.N.H., on the other hand, was psyched-up, playing as an underdog before a partisan crowd in its first trip to Boston Garden.

In the ECAC finals, B.U. pleased its many raucous fans among the 13,000 who showed up for the second game, upsetting favored Cornell, 4-1. The regularly used a fourth line for the first time all season, off-setting Cornell's fourth line and foiling the Big Red's wear-the-opposition-down style of play. Both teams will represent the East in the NCAA's this weekend at Boston Garden.