Extra-Man Handling

What happens when an unstoppable force meets a quite moveable object?

Just ask the Brown men's hockey team--goalie Chris Harvey in particular. Or ask the five skaters who make up the Crimson power play.

Seven times Harvard's forceful power play met the malleable Brown penalty killers and helpless Harvey Saturday at Bright Center. Four times, the Crimson turned those power play into goals. Three would have been enough, as Harvard extra-man handled Brown, 5-2.

Toss out the power play goals in the game and you'd be left with this final: Harvard 1, Brown 1. Leave them in and you have a Crimson blowout and Harvard's third straight trip to the ECAC semifinals.

Before the game, Brown knew that to beat Harvard it would have to keep Harvard's power-play unit--comprised of defensemen Mark Benning and Randy Taylor and forwards Tim Barakett, Allen Bourbeau and Lane MacDonald--off the ice.

But when Bruin forward Mark Reechan went to the box for slashing with 13 minutes left in the first period, Bourbeau responded with a wicked shot from 10 feet to tie the score at one.

And after Brown defenseman Mark LaChance was whistled for an interference penalty with four minutes left in the period, Bourbeau again took advantage, scooping up the rebound of a Barakett blast and plugging a shot past Harvey.

Two Harvard power-plays. Two Harvard goals.

But don't blame Brown for not solving Harvard's man-advantage riddle. Not many other teams have either. Before the game, the Crimson power-play had been clicking at an impressive 34.7 percent.

"We couldn't rush them because they move the puck so quickly," Brown Coach Herb Hammond said. "We tried to play a box and let the man shoot from the middle and hope our goalie could play him straight up. They just move the puck so fast. It's a very difficult power play to defend."

"You've got two boys [Benning and Taylor] at the point who have a lot of poise," Harvard Coach Bill Cleary said. "They know each other well and they don't fool around with the puck. The three players down low [Barakett, Bourbeau and MacDonald] have a great hockey sense. They're also able to improvise."

MacDonald and Bourbeau have improvised to the tune of 15 power-play goals each this season. Barakett has 12.

Taylor and Benning have netted only three power-play goals apiece. But their job is to feed the trio down low, and they have a penalty box full of assists to show how skilled they are at doing just that.

"It is pretty," Benning said. "It's something we work hard on in practice. When you have three players like Lane, Tim and Allen up front, all we have to do is get the puck to them. We take advantage of another team's rushing around."

If other teams are perplexed at the beauty--and potency--of Harvard's power play, they can take heart: the Crimson players are just as amazed by it.

"I would not know how to defend our power play," Benning said. "If you rushed us, you'd leave a man open. If you played back, you'd give us time to handle the puck."

The next stop for Harvard and its powerful power-play is Boston Garden, where the Crimson will face RPI.

There's only one way Harvard's power-play can't be effective: if it never takes the ice. The Crimson seems prepared to live by its power play. But life by power-play is a tenuous one: it hangs on the same string as the referee's whistle.

"Late in the season the rets aren't going to call as many penalties," MacDonald said. "So it's going to be a little tougher on us."