Icers Drop Another One, 4-1

Whap! Whap!

The buzzer marking the end of another disappointing Harvard loss had sounded a few seconds ago, and the teams were lining up for the traditional handshakes.

Sophomore center Bob McDonald was firing slapshots at an empty net, just to see if the puck really could go in off a Crimson stick. Whap! Whap!

For most of Saturday afternoon at Walter Brown Arena, it could not. Only Mike Watson's second-period wrist shot off a beautiful feed from George Hughes eluded Eli goaltender Keith Allain as Yale knocked off Bill Cleary's win-starved squad, 4-1.

The chances to make the contest a close one were there. Down 3-1 after two stanzas, the Crimson had many opportunities to pull within one goal in period three, outshooting Yale, 9-5.

But Allain stopped the shots he had to and watched as the Crimson missed some he didn't have a chance on, until Marshall Hamilton broke down left wing and beat Harvard's John Hynes between the pads at 18:03 to ice the game and send most of the remaining fans streaming for the exits.

The first period, though evenly played, ended with the Blue on top, 2-0. Eli scoring leader Paul Castraberti started things off when he put linemate Danny Brugman in alone on Hynes. When the Harvard netminder made the first move, Brugman casually cut to his left and backhanded the puck by Hynes to give Yale the lead, 12:23 into the game. Six minutes later, Gavin Thurston tipped in a Castraberti slapshot for a power-play tally to make the score 2-0.

After Watson cut the margin in half at 7:01 of the second period, Thurston struck again for his 12th goal of the year, this one an angle shot past Hynes' stickside. Invigorated, Yale turned on the pressure in the offensive zone, and only some superb goaltending by Hynes kept the Crimson within range as the second period ended.

"Oh, man, we were pitiful," one person associated with the team said as play progressed. It wasn't really that bad, but Saturday's defeat, which dropped the Crimson record to 5-14-1 (3-12-1 in ECAC Division One), did not leave Harvard hockey fans with much to look forward to as the season stumbles through its last three weeks.

LINE CHANGES: Crimson captain John Cochrane returned to action Saturday after missing Wednesday's game against Cornell because of a groin injury sustained last Monday at the Bean-pot.