Icemen Falter in 5-5 Tie at Princeton, Then Lose Pair at Western Michigan

At last, it's over. The December road trip to end all road trips--eight consecutive away games--has ended. The icemen must have been feeling homesick toward the end, as they wasted a three-goal lead and tied Princeton, 5-5, on December 19 and ten days later dropped a pair of close games to Western Michigan.

The team's overall record now stands at 5-5-1 (5-3-1 in the ECAC).

Harvard squandered leads of 3-0 and 4-1, as well as a four-minute power play in overtime against Princeton. The 3-0 margin resulted from a fast-skating first period, the kind the Crimson thrives on. Shayne Kukolwicz pounced on a loose puck in the crease behind Tiger goalie Ron Dennis at 11:58 for the first goal. A Greg Olson tally 40 seconds later made it 2-0, and Greg Chalmers scored at 14:05 off of a rebound of Jay North's slapshot.

But Princeton changed the tempo of the game in the second stanza. "They play a rough brand of hockey," Crimson coach Bill Cleary said of the Tigers, "and we made the mistake of playing along with them."

Jim Turner matched an early second-period Tiger goal off of a text book two-on-one with Scott Powers. But the Tigers soon started checking with more authority, and they took control of the action, rallying for three goals in the last six-and-a-half minutes of the period. The final score by Tiger center Ross Lambert tied the contest with two seconds left.

The team captains traded goals in the third period. Ron Casey put Princeton ahead with a high shot to Crimson goalie Wade Lau's glove side at 5:07. And Michael Watson retaliated on a power play at 7:29, converting a pass from Kukulowicz.

Down the stretch and into overtime, the action in the penalty boxes grew busier. The referees distributed five roughing penalties, including one which gave the Crimson a fruitless power play at 17:14.

Harvard's last chance to escape with the win came at 5:23 in overtime, when Tiger defenseman's interference penalty was doubled by an unsportsmanlike conduct call. But a tentative power play failed to produce a game-winner.

The icemen proceeded to their last port-of-call, Kalamazoo, Mich., where they fell by scores of 3-1 and 4-2 to a mediocre Western Michigan squad. Despite 39 saves by Lau in the first contest, two third-period Michigan goals did in the Crimson. Harvard's only tally came in the first period, a shot from the point by Alan Litchfield.

Jay North and Brad Kwong scored in the second game, and Steve Better played well in the Harvard net, but the star of the contest was Michigan's Ross Fitzpatrick, who scored a natural hat trick in the second period.

THE NOTEBOOK: Greg Olson, suffering from a charley horse, is questionable for tomorrow night's home game against Boston College, and Scott Powers is definitely out with an ankle sprain... Faceoff is at 7:30 p.m. at Bright Center.