A Thorny Rose Nets a Sweet Goal

Whenever Harvard defenseman Kevan Melrose heads into the penalty box, fans cheer. He is Bright Center's newest cult figure. It is one strange relationship.

Melrose got whistled again? (Begin to cheer.) What did he do? Make a Vermont player eat ice? (Chant his name.) There he goes into the penalty box. (Chants grow louder.)

Saturday against the Catamounts, the Bright fans worshipped their hero again. But for different reasons.

When the Crimson broke a 2-2 tie late in the third period, Melrose wasn't watching from the penalty box. He was scoring a power-play goal from the middle of the right circle.

What did Melrore do now? Score a goal? (Brief moment of silence.) Harvard's up, 3-2, on Melrose's goal? (Begin to cheer.) Nice goal, wasn't it? (Cheer even louder.)

The move Melrose made was as aggressive as his style of play. When he saw Ted Donato behind the net, Melrose rushed in from the point. Rushed in hard. So hard that Donato thought Melrose had other ideas.

"I was scared," Donato said. "I thought he was going to hit me. But his eyes were as big as cookies out there."

Oreos? Chocolate chip? Fudge Stripes? Donato didn't have time to tell. All he saw was Melrose rushing into the zone, wanting the puck.

Melrose got his wish, took the shot and buried the puck into the net.

"I just shot it at the far side of the net and it went off the post and it felt great," Melrose said.

It was perhaps the biggest goal of the season. It happened on a night when Vermont outplayed the Crimson for two periods. When it looked as if Harvard would lose its first game of the season.

But the Crimson player with the cookie eyes kept Harvard undefeated.

"I'm defensive player, I'm more take-the-body-and-get-puck-out-to-our-forwards," Melrose said. "And it's like a Christmas present for me. I'm going to remember the game for a while."

So will Vermont Coach Mike Gilligan, who said after the game that Harvard benefited from some hometeam calls in the third period that turned the game around.

But what Gilligan said shouldn't detract from the excitement at Bright where Melrose played the role of unlikely hero. Bright rocked. Bright rolled. Its new cult figure celebrated on the ice. The relationship is not so strange anymore.

"Kevan's capable of being an offensive force," Captain Lane MacDonald said. "But he likes to concentrate on the physical part of the game. If he worried a bit more about offense, he'd score a lot more goals."

Maybe Melrose will take MacDonald's advice, and maybe Melrose will score so many goals that he'll catch up to MacDonald on the all-time scoring list.

Probably not, but the fans at Bright won't care. For now, Kevan Melrose is theirs. And Saturday night, Melrose gave his loyal followers something extra. Something not many will soon forget.