Martins Takes Player Of The Week

Harvard junior Steve Martins was named the ECAC Player of the Week for his performance against Brown Saturday night at Providence, R.I.

The Gatineau, Quebec native scored two goals and assisted on captain Sean McCann's late third-period goal that sent the game into overtime, where the Crimson won, 5-4.

The second goal was the culmination of a tremendous effort on a penalty-killing situation. Martins raced up the left side of the rink into the Brown zone. With a man on him, Martins skated to the back of the net and attempted to center the puck to junior Ben Coughlin, but the puck never got to his linemate.

Instead, the puck bounced off the leg pads of Bear goalie Geoff Finch and trickled across the goal line to cut Brown's lead to 3-2. The bewildered Finch just stared at the net.

Junior Cory Gustafson, the other linemate of Martins, received an honorable mention from the ECAC office for scoring the game-winner at the 2:49 mark of overtime.

Gustafson raced the puck across the Brown blue line and let it rip from 50 feet out. Finch was fooled by the long shot, the red light went on and a Crimson mob scene occurred on the ice shortly after.

Favorites Showdown

Harvard-Brown was the only ECAC conference game to be played last weekend, but another all-important battle was fought at Boston University's Walter Brown Arena last Saturday.

Boston University--the Hockey East preseason favorite--took on ECAC preseason favorite Rensselaer before a sellout crowd of 3,806, the largest attendance in the arena's 22-year history.

The Engineers took a 2-0 lead into the third period, built the lead to 4-1 after a BU score and won by a final margin of 4-2.

RPI's All-American goalie Neil Little stopped 33 shots, taming the Terriers for most of the night.

"We had great opportunities, but Little frustrated us and, at times, we frustrated ourselves," BU Head Coach Jack Parker told The Boston Globe Saturday.

The Engineers are 2-1-0 so far--they lost to Hockey East's Merrimack before rebounding to destroy hapless Army, 9-2.

A Little Payback

Harvard's victory over Brown is a little payback for the Bears' 3-1 victory over the Crimson in last year's ECAC tournament semifinal, but Harvard Coach Ronn Tomassoni called it "old news" after the win Saturday...Harvard's last two goals came on the first shift after timeouts were called. McCann's tally followed a Harvard timeout during its last power play, while Gustafson's game-winner came 35 seconds after Brown Coach Bob Gaudet called time to give his defense and Finch a rest. Finch never seemed to wake up....Harvard-Brown is the oldest collegiate hockey rivalry, dating back to the year 1898. The Crimson leads the series, 82-29-6...The Crimson has won four straight season openers and 13 of its last 15...Harvard is 9-3-3 in its last 15 regular-season overtime games, dating back to the 1988-89 season...21 penalties were called in Saturday's game, leading to nine Harvard power plays and seven for Brown. The teams played at full strength for only 36:23 out of a possible 62:49. For the record, the referees were Harry Ammian and Michael Saba. The linesman was Roger Monfette...Harvard's defense probably has quite a few black-and-blue marks after blocking 16 Brown shots in the game...The game was delayed twice because of poor ice conditions near the door leading to the Harvard players' bench. The Zamboni driver was summoned to patch it up.