Bruin Rally Knots Icemen; Crimson Loses Late Lead

After squandering a two-goal, third-period lead, the Crimson icemen hung tough and killed off five minutes of overtime penalties to tie Brown, 4-4, at Meehan Auditorium Saturday night. Harvard now sports a 2-2-1 record.

The aggressive Bruin defense silenced most of the Crimson firepower, but three novice goalscorers triggered the red light to lead the Harvard attack. Bobby Fowkes, Greg Britz and Graham Carter, all scoring their first goals of the campaign, supplemented Mark Fusco's first-period tally to provide the icemen with a 4-2 lead 12 minutes into the final period.

Comeback?

But the Bruins fought back. Darryl Bolduc beat Crimson netminder Wade Lau at 13:13, and just over a minute later, John Slonim's second goal of the game (and the season) knotted the affair for good.

Both teams still faced some rough moments before the final buzzer, however. At 18:07, Brown's Kevin Lovitt slammed Harvard's Rob Burns to the ground and trudged off to the penalty box to serve a two-minute minor for roughing. Before he could get very far, however, Britz arrived with his bone-crunching retaliation and received the inevitable punishment: five minutes for malicious high-sticking.

Half a minute later, and 1:17 before the end of regulation time, the Bruins played Santa and presented the Crimson with a minute-long power play as Slonim left the ice for tripping at 18:43.

But the icemen could not capitalize on the opportunity. Regulation time expired, then both Brown penalties expired, moments later, forcing the Crimson to play one man down during three minutes of the overtime. No sooner did Britz return than Mitch Olson departed: two minutes for tripping at 5:17 of the OT.

Miracles

Miraculously, the Crimson penalty-killing quartet of Fusco, Dave Burke, Tom Murray and Scott Sangster--aided by a few unbelievable Lau saves--closed the door on the Bruin offense, and the game ended deadlocked at 4-4.

Earlier, the Bruins took a 1-0 lead when Slonim fired a darter from just inside the blue line that eluded Lau for a power-play goal.

The Harvard power play retaliated in the final minute of the first period with some nifty passing that produced Fusco's fourth score of the season at 19:44.

Fowkes's tally at 3:03 of the second gave the Crimson a 2-1 lead, but a Bruin breakaway (during a Crimson power play) with five seconds left in the period evened the score again.

To Err is Human

"A few people made mistakes on that one," Lau said after the game. "There's no way we should have allowed a breakaway with five seconds to go--especially one man up."

When Carter--who received credit for a goal when a Peter Evans shot deflected off his skate--and Fowkes added their goals in the final period, the Crimson appeared headed for its second straight road victory, until the two quick Bruin goals changed matters drastically.

"We had dominated the first half of the third period, and I hadn't handled a shot in about ten minutes," Lau said. "You tend to get a little cold and a little bit rusty."

"I was afraid of a letdown after B.U., but the kids showed me some stuff," coach Billy Cleary said after the game.