Third Period Blues

You're in a fancy restaurant, faced with a dilemma. The appetizer and salad are delicious, the main course, delectable (remember, I said a restaurant, not a Harvard dining hall). But the dessert left a pretty bad taste in your mouth. How would you rate your dinner overall?

Harvard's hockey team has found itself in similar situations this season. In its three games, the Crimson has usually come out strong in the first and second periods. The final stanza, however, has often left a bitter taste in its mouth.

The subsequent evaluations have been varied.

Against Yale last Friday, the result was negative--a loss. Against Princeton the following night, the result was positive--Harvard won, although its four-goal lead was cut to one in a six-minute span in the third period. Against Cornell Friday night, the result was again positive--the squad beat Cornell even though the Big Red had twice as many shots on goal in the third period as it did in the first two combined.

And then there was Saturday night's game against Colgate, where a 2-0 lead through 40 minutes vanished in a 24-second span at the beginning of the third. Colgate would even seize the lead before Kirk Nielsen came through once again to tie it with 4:07 left.

"For two periods, we're playing pretty darn well," Coach Ronn Tomassoni said. "That third period is something I'm concerned about--in every one of our games so far it has been our worst period."

"We got to get over those third-period blues," he said.

Although the game itself wasn't very pretty, Harvard put together a solid team effort through 40 minutes.

But the squad left its focus in the locker room after the second intermission and didn't regain it until about seven minutes remained in regulation.

"We let up, we sat back on our lead, they got a couple of quick goals, and we didn't know how to respond to it," said Doug Sproule, who filled in for the (day-to-day) injured Steve Martins.

Conditioning and the relative inexperience on the Crimson are probably the biggest culprits. This was only the third weekend and fifth game of the season; the players need a little more time to mature as a team.

"The inexperience part definitely plays into it," Bryan Lonsinger said, "Mental discipline is really important. We're going to have to learn the hard way--hopefully after tonight we will have learned."

While the players are disappointed that they didn't garner four points on the weekend, there still are several positives to come out of the Colgate tie.

First, the team was playing with out its top player in Martins, which put a crimp in its already-struggling power play and forced Tomassoni to juggle his lines. Yet Harvard still scored three goals, hits the post twice and managed 27 shots on net and 50 total shot attempts.

Second, when Colgate took its lead, Harvard awoke and fought hard for the equalizer. It almost won the game late in the third period, but Ashlin Halfnight was denied on a breakaway, as was a quality Cory Gustafson shot.

The team defense was strong again, aside from the aforementioned mental lapse, and the squad played disciplined hockey, only taking three penalties in the game.

And finally, Tripp Tracy never gave up, playing perhaps the best he has all season after Colgate's third goal. He held the fort for the final eight minutes of regulation and stoned the Red Raiders five times in overtime, four from point-blank range.

"I was definitely encouraged the after they got those goals that I as able to come back strong and have a good overtime," Tracy said. "We didn't get the win, but it was vital that we get the tie."

Those, then, are the ingredients that the Crimson will have to build off of for its future menu to be planning to itself and its fans.

As for the early disappointment Harvard will have to look at these as that vile baby food your parents made you eat when you were young.

You might have hated it originally but as long as you were able to grow out of it, you know that it was good for you.