Icemen Lose, 3-2

The Harvard hockey team was laid to rest Saturday night in a simple ceremony at Walter Brown Funeral Home. About 200 or so close friends and relatives braved the weather to attend the service. Death was said to be premature, and brought on by the 3-2 loss against St. Lawrence, which preceded the last rites.

And, believe it or not, it didn't seem like an upset. The Larries, who came into the game with the third worst record in the ECAC (2-6-1) and an eight-game losing streak against the Crimson (lest we forget the 10-0 slaying at Watson Rink two Reading Periods ago), completely outskated and outclevered the otherwise engaged icemen from start to finish, and left the bite-sized crowd feeling guilty over the productive things it could have done instead.

Harvard is now 5-10-0 overall, 3-8 in the ECAC. And if you can sit there and say that the playoffs are still a possibility with B.U., Dartmouth and Cornell (twice) still on the schedule, then you are obviously waiting for Bobby Hull to come off the injured list and play left point on the power play.

Ah, yes, the power play. Harvard was handed nine opportunities by the chippy Larries during the contest and missed on all but one of them. Give some credit to the St. Lawrence penalty killers and goalie Gary Laskowski, who managed to go a long way on little talent, positioning himself in front of Harvard shots 24 times.

In fact, the two Crimson goals were less than zamboni-inspired masterpieces. Down 2-0 after two periods, Mike Watson got Harvard on the board with his ninth of the year at 10:33.

George Hughes started it off late in a double-minor power play when he cruised into the St. Lawrence zone, went by the cage on the left side, and shoveled the back in front for anybody. A couple of onsides kicks by St. Lawrence defenders later, the puck gyroscoped its way by Laskowski. How Watson got credit for the phantom tally is one for Columbo to solve.

With David Burke off for elbowing, St. Lawrence upped the margin to two again with a power play goal of its own. Laskowski stopped two short-handed bids before clearing the puck to Dean Popiel on the right wing. Popiel broke in two-on-one, faked the pass and beat Wade Lau for his second score and the winning tally at 14:54.

The Crimson notched its final dyslexic tally of the game 62 seconds later. Burke's drive from the blue line was sticked away by Laskowski, but his attempted clear hit off Harvard forward Scott Powers' skate and onto the stick of George Hughes, who was untouched at the right post, for the dunk shot.

"St. Lawrence skated very well against us," said team captain John Cochrane after the game. "This was the sixth time we've had to pull our goalie this year. We've got to win almost all our games from now on, so hopefully the other teams will be pulling their goalies for a change," he added.

THE NOTEBOOK: The icemen have 12 days off for exams until their next game, in Providence against the Friars on January 31. Harvard topped P.C. 5-2 on November 29 in by far its best ECAC showing of the season.