Playoff Hopes Still Alive for Crimson

NEW HAVEN, Conn.--The shot was a bullet, low to Wade Lau's gloved side. The Harvard goalie extended his right leg, reached with his glove, but helplessly watched the puck sail into the twines.

"I'd give a million dollars to have that last goal," Lau said in the Ingalls Rink locker room after Harvard's frustrating 5-5 tie with Yale Saturday night. "But," he added, "what can you do?"

What the Harvard hockey team, now 7-9-1 in the ECAC and 10-11-1 overall, can do is thank somebody that an off-night resulted in a prove-nothing tie and not a loss. And the first two in line for handshakes are Tom Murray and Mark Fusco.

With Yale leading, 5-4, after Dan Poliziani's bullet had beaten Lau with nine minutes left in the game, Bulldog Jim Steiner was called for tripping at 16:02, creating a Crimson power play.

Murray, who had assisted on all four previous Harvard goals, deked Yale goalie Mark Rodgrigues in front of the net, and passed back to Fusco in the slot. Fusco waited, stepped up, waited... fired... and scored the equalizer.

"At first I thought I'd shoot," said Fusco, "but then I figured, oh, if I ever missed. So I took a step up and tried to make sure as best I could."

Next on the plaudits list is Lau, who turned in the textbook performance of "Playing Well on a Tough Night." The junior netminder scrambled for 32 saves, and none was better than a second period bank job he pulled on Steiner. With 7:26 remaining in the stanza and Yale on a power play, Steiner flipped the puck toward an apparently open net, as Lau was on his back in the crease. Somehow Lau turned over on his stomach, stuck his glove out toward the net, and Uri Geller-ed the puck into his glove. Incredible.

"I'm not sure how I did that either," he said after the game. "I just turned around and held out my glove and the puck fell in."

It was--and it wasn't--that kind of night. Harvard bolted to a 4-2 lead on goals by Michael Watson (2), Greg Olson and Neil Sheehy. But Yale, playing a much more restrained physical game than the near-riot at Cambridge a week ago, stormed back with three third-period goals: Dave Williams tallying to make it 4-3, Steiner equalizing, and Dan Poliziani's bullet beating Lau at 11:34 for the 5-4 Yale lead. Earlier in the season, that would have been it.

The Playoff Situation

No, Harvard really doesn't have to win all four, but, yes, it will be tough. With Cornell (now 7-9-1, same as Harvard) and Princeton (now 7-10) each losing twice over the weekend, a victory Saturday night would have given the Crimson first place in the Ivy division--and that means a playoff spot--with the same record as and two wins over Yale (now 8-8-1). But the tie means this: Yale, with three games remaining (at Brown, Cornell, home against Dartmouth) is a full game ahead of Harvard (four left) and Cornell (five left--it plays one extra ECAC game for some reason), and the equivalent of a game and a half ahead of Princeton (four left and still very much in it). Even Dartmouth, at 7-11 and with four left, is still alive, although the Green has to travel to Cornell, Princeton and Yale. In other words, stay tuned.