SLU, Knights Sweep Icemen Into Second

POTSDAM, N.Y.--The Clarkson fraternity bell at soon-to-be-defunct Walker Arena tolled for the last time on the Harvard men's hockey team, as the Golden Knights rolled over the Crimson, 7-5, here in faraway Potsdam, N.Y., Saturday night.

Clarkson sophomore Hugo Belanger shot into an empty net with 19 seconds left in the final frame, killing the Crimson's comeback from a 6-3 deficit and capping off a treacheroas road trip to the North Country. Harvard, which had not played since December 15, dropped a physical 5-4 contest to St. Lawrence Friday night in Canton, N.Y.

With the losses, the ninth-ranked Crimson (8-6 overall, 8-4 ECAC) were knocked out of first place in the league standings. The Saints (11-5-1, 8-2-1) took over the ECAC lead by one point with a one-goal victory over cellar-dwellar Dartmouth. Harvard is tied for second place with Cornell (8-3-2, 7-1-2), which came back to win, 5-4, at Rensellaer Saturday.

Overworked, Underpaid

Harvard's superline of Hobey Baker candidates Peter Ciavaglia, Ted Donato and Mike Vukonich, which has carried the burden of the Crimson's scoring with 70 points in six games, added 15 more points over the weekend while the rest of the Crimson skaters combined for four points. In the physical play of the North Country, numerous penalty situations pitted the trio on the ice for nearly 30 minutes in each game.

"It's tough for one line to carry the whole team," Clarkson Coach Mark Morris said. "They played the heck out of those three guys."

During the Crimson's five league wins in its previous six games, the superline's scoring total was enough to catapult the squad to victory. But seemingly constant man-down situations following Harvard penalties gave the Saints and Knights a few too many scoring opportunities.

"We're taking a lot of penalties and not killing the power play," Ciavaglia said. "When we score four or five goals, that should be enough to win the game. But with our guys always in the box, it's tough.

After Clarkson had raced to a 5-1 lead in thesecond period, Harvard freshman Michel Briestroffscored unassisted and Ted Donato tallied on abeautiful sweep down the right wing boards tobring the Crimson within one. But after a TimBurke slashing penalty, Clarkson winger ScottThomas fired from the left circle on the powerplay to beat Crimson goalie Allain Roy high rightwith 5:31 left in the second frame.

The Golden Knights scored on three of sixpower-play attempts Saturday, while St. Lawrencewas 3-for-7 the previous evening.

"The penalties are what's killing us more thananything," Harvard Coach Ronn Tomassoni said."That power-play goal in the second period tookthe wind out of our sails."

Crimson forward John Weisbrod and defendersDerek Maguire and Kevin Sneddon used the Christmaslayoff to recuperate from injuries. But all threeplayers were reinjured over the weekend. Sneddonaggravated his shoulder Friday and did not dressfor the Clarkson game, and Maguire--healed from ahip-pointer--injured his knee in the first periodagainst the Golden Knights.

Weisbrod, who had an outstanding four-assistouting against St. Lawrence in his first gamesince November 16, left Saturday's game in thesecond period after aggravating his back injury.

The decimated Harvard ranks showed signs ofweakness over the weekend, especially on thedefensive end. The Crimson had trouble clearingthe puck out of its own end and left gaping holesat times.

"Harvard's lack of numbers of regular skaterscertainly had an effect on the outcome of thisgame," Morris said. "It takes the chemistry out oftheir regular game."

Allain Roy, appearing in the net on successivenights, was perhaps the one bright spot on theCrimson's defense over the weekend. The juniornetminder, who entered the weekend with aleague-leading 2.80 goals against average, keptboth games close with 35 and 25 saves despitenumerous scoring opportunities.

With 9:49 left in the final period against theGolden Knights, Donato drove down the right nearside and beat freshman netminder Jason Currie tocut the Clarkson lead to 6-4. After Clarksondefender Martin d'Orsonnens was sent to the boxfor roughing with 2:21 left, Vukonich took aDonato pass and fired a shot from the left pointto again bring the Crimson within one.

Saints, 5-4 in Canton, N.Y.

HARVARD  2-1-1--4St. Lawrence  2-0-3--5

First Period: 1, S, Martin Lacroix (AndyPritchard, Mike Lappin) 5:53; 2, H, PeterCiavaglia (Ted Donato, John Weisbrod) 14:56; 3, S,M. Lappin (Lacroix, Pritchard) 15:57; 4, H, Donato(Weisbrod, Ciavaglia) 19:25. Penalties--S,Pritchard (slashing) 1:13; H, Weisbrod (highsticking) 1:13; S, Daniel LaPerriere (holding)3:14; H, Donato (hooking) 4:27; H, Sean McCann(interference) 4:47; S, Lee Albert (hitting frombehind) 7:31; H, Tim Burke (late hit) 11:00; H,Steve Flomenhoft (late hit) 11:00; S, LaPerriere(late hit) 11:00; S, Chris Lappin (late hit)11:00; S, Pritchard (slashing) 11:57; S, Kuntar(10' misconduct) 14:56; H, Jim Coady (tripping)15:09; H, Scott Barringer (roughing) 18:19; H,Flomenhoft (roughing) 18:19; S, Teddy Dent(roughing) 18:19; S, Ted Beattie (roughing) 18:19;S, M. Lappin (holding) 19:25.

Second Period: 5, H, Mike Vukonich(Weisbrod) 11:41. Penalties--H, Kevin Sneddon(interference) 7:18; H, Bench (too many men)10:11; H, Coady (holding) 13:44; S, LaPerriere(tripping) 14:24.

Third Period: 6, S, Spencer Meany (JimGiacin, Dent) 4:10; 7, S, Pritchard (M. Lappin,Chris Wells) 4:43; 8, H, Ciavaglia (Weisbrod,Vukonich) 8:45; 9, S, Pritchard (LaPerriere, M.Lappin) 9:27. Penalties--S, John Roderick(interference) 7:24; H, Flomenhoft (late hit)9:08; H, McCann (roughing) 9:08; S, Gerard Verbeek(roughing) 9:08; S, Roderick (slashing) 14:47.

Saves: H--Allain Roy 12-11-12--35;S--Les Kuntar 10-9-11--30; S--Paul Spagnoletti(10:51) 2-2-0--4.

Power Play: Harvard 3-7; New Hampshire3-7.

Attendence: 3400

Knights, 7-5 in Potsdam, N.Y.

HARVARD  1-2-2--5Clarkson  3-3-1--7

First Period: 1, c, Dave Tretowicz (HugoBelanger, Jeff Torrey) 9:42; 2, H, Peter Ciavaglia(John Weisbrod, Mike Vukonich) 12:22; 3, C, MikkoTavi (Dave Trombley, Mike Kozak) 13:26; 4, C,Trombley (Torrey, Guy Sanderson). Penalties--H,Vukonich (hooking) 4:09; C, Scott Thomas (holding)4:09; H, Weisbrod (roughing) 7:46; C, SteveDubinsky (roughing) 7:46; H, McCann (interference)8:56; C, Shawn Fotheringham (roughing) 11:50; H,Mallgrave (roughing) 13:37; C, Patrick Theriault(roughing) 13:37; H, Jim Coady (holding) 14:25.

Second Period: 5, C, Belanger (Kozak)3:23; 6, C, Craig Conroy (Sylvain Lapointe, MikeCasselman) 5:05; 7, H, Michel Briestroff(unassisted); 8, Ted Donato (Rich DeFrietas, TedDrury); 9, C, Thomas (Dubinsky). Penalties--H, TimBurke (high-sticking) 3:43; C, David Green(roughing) 3:43; C, Trombley (roughing) 11:38; H,Burke (slashing) 14:05.

Third Period: 10, H, Donato (Vukonich,Ciavaglia) 10:11; 11, H, Vukonich (Donato, SeanMcCann) 17:39; 12, C, Hugo Belanger (unassisted),19:41. Penalties--H, DeFrietas (holding) 3:59; C,Green (unsportsmanlike conduct) 5:54; H, DeFrietas(holding) 13:09; C, Martin d'Orsonnens (roughing)17:05; H, Donato (delay of game) 19:48; C, Thomas(delay of game) 19:48.

Saves: H--Allain Roy 25; C--Jason Currie22.

Power Play: Harvard 2-5; Clarkson 3-6.

Attendance: 160