Daydream Believer

You know, I didn't even think Harvard belonged in the tournament, but I guess they're proving that they do. -a subdued Clarkson fan between the second and third periods last night at the Boston Garden, with Harvard clinging to a 2-1 lead.

The Harvard hockey team belongs.

First of all, the icemen belong to a lunatic mob of fans that rung the Boston Garden with the Harvard Gong and so much more. Second, they belong in the record books as one of the most amazing come-from-back-in-the-pack teams in ECAC history, at team that went from garbage can to silver platter faster than you can drop the puck. And finally, and most importantly, they belong in the ECAC tournament finals tonight against Northeastern, after their 7-1 destruction of number-one-seeded Clarkson last night at the Garden.

And not only do the icemen belong, they believe.

"They're confident now, there's no question about that," Coach Bill Cleary said after the game. "They believe they can do whatever the hell they want to do."

What the Harvard hockey team has wanted to do in the last six weeks is win, an attitude which has pushed it to six straight ECAC wins and an 8-1-1 mark over its last ten conference games.

"We've been winning games that we're not only supposed to win, but also the games that we have to win," defenseman Mark Fusco said. "This team has the killer instinct."

So much of one, in fact, that the icemen probably should be on trial somewhere for the indiscretions they have committed in recent weeks. Four goals in the third period to beat Northeastern. Shutting the lights out on Princeton, 10-zip. Raping (and pillaging, I guess) Cornell, 7-0. Slapping up Dartmouth, shattering Boston College.

And then there's Clarkson, a 16-4-1 ECAC team, the number one team in the East, the number two team in the country. An AHL, franchise that kicked Harvard in the pants, 8-1, at Potsdam, N.Y., back in January.

Harvard scrambled--there's no other way to stop a team that races up the ice as the Golden Knights do--on defense and into the locker room trailing only 1-0 after the first period. A one-goal deficit after one, against the best the East could offer, meant that the Harvard hockey team belonged.

"We started winning, and we got the feeling of winning," said senior wing Scott Powers, who has been through four frustrating hockey years at Harvard. "It's a nice feeling, and you keep after it. We get down a goal now, and we keep coming back."

In the second period, at the 5:12 mark, Crimson defenseman Neil Sheehy brought the icemen back. His shot from the point blew past a screened Clarkson goaltender Don Sylvestri, and Harvard had tied the game at one.

The 2000-or-so Harvard fans went crazy after the goal--the crowd was among the many who suffered a tentative awe of Clarkson through the early moments of the game--and parallel to their pick up in tempo, the icemen also stepped up a notch.

"Once we got that first goal, that was all we needed," winger Greg Olson said. "We've got confidence now."

For the rest of the period, the icemen controlled the Golden Knights at center ice with stiff forechecking. Just when it looked like the game would go to the third stanza with the score still tied. Mark Fusco took the puck into the Golden Knight zone, skated from right to left, pulling Sylvestri to his side, and then sliding the puck across to Jim Turner, who calmly popped his second straight game-winning goal into the net at 19:07.

Harvard, in the locker room with a 2-1 lead, belonged.

In the third period, it was hello killer instinct--five goals for the Harvard side, including two more by Sheehy, in a span of just over seven minutes--and nah-nah-nah-nah, hey-hey-hey, goodbye Clarkson.

Two months ago, the Harvard hockey team didn't even belong on the ice with Clarkson. Last night it was the Golden Knights, and especially Sylvestri (0-2-1 lifetime at the Garden), who had to wonder just where they belonged. They are now 4-11 in ECAC semi-finals.

And only a month ago, few would have thought that the Harvard hockey team belonged in the ECAC playoffs, or in a good position for an NCAA berth.

"I told the kids before the game that a month ago, it was just a dream to all of us," Cleary said.

The Harvard hockey team, a former one-in-a-million shot, has become a dream-believer.