A Bad, Bad Night

It was just one of those nights when nothing went right.

I was pondering what to say about the carnage, but before I even started writing, I dropped a heavy chair on my foot. Yep, it was one of those nights.

But my physical pain is nothing compared to the sheer disappointment that the Harvard hockey team felt after being clubbed, 6-1, by B.U. Yesterday was something that not even Coach Ronn Tomassoni--always an optimist--could put a positive spin on.

"Good question," he said, which he followed with a long pause when asked if there was one, even one itty bitty little good thing to come out of the loss.

"We didn't show up to play as a team," captain Ben Coughlin said. "We were making mistakes all over the ice; we weren't playing physically; and we just didn't come out and play a Harvard style of game."

It was a night that Bright Hockey Center hasn't seen in ages.

The Crimson hadn't lost a game at home since the regular-season finale in 1993 (17 home games ago) and nothing that bad since a 6-1 loss to Colgate on February 10, 1990 (53 Bright nights back).

It was a game that one would love to burn the videotape of, but since it was televised, even an act of pyromania wouldn't do the job right. With the television timeouts to boot, the game gave you the same sensation you get when you pull off a band-aid very slowly.

"TV sucks," the crowd chanted with BU leading, 6-0.

It was one of those nights where the biggest cheer went to Zamboni driver and rink manager Jack Kirrane, who came out to repair the goal in front of the student section in the second period with B.U. leading by three.

"Here we go Jack, here we go," they said.

But no amount of audience humor or support could change the inevitable.

Harvard ran up against the top-ranked team in the nation, and the Crimson didn't play very well. When that happens, things get ugly. Exhibit No. 1: the second period.

B.U. had 32 shot attempts, 22 shots on goal, six breakaways and two-on-ones and 16 blasts from within the hash marks at Tripp Tracy and Steve Hermsdorf in the 20-minute span.

"I never experienced a period like that," Bryan Lonsinger said. "Everybody was playing as hard as they could, but we had a barrage of bad plays, poor defensive plays."

OK, there were a couple of positives after all--Tracy and Hermsdorf played solid hockey in net. But then again, a team can't be smiling when it has made its goaltenders the stars even though they gave up six goals.

Tracy wasn't beaten on any of the numerous breakaways and odd-man chances, and it wasn't humanly possible for him to stop the rebounds and deflections by the Terriers who were unguarded right in front of him.

And Hermsdorf stopped all 10 shots that came his way. For all you scoring at home, it was Hermsdorf (and Harvard) 1, B.U. 0 in his 24 minutes of action.

"We just wanted to come out and work really hard in the third period," Hermsdorf said. "Tripp played a great game--those goals were not his fault."

But despite the goalie play, the game was purely ugly from a Harvard standpoint. No individual can be faulted for the loss. It was a team defeat.

If the players haven't already done so after the previous disappointments, they have to look hard at last night's game and pick up the pieces. Union and Rensselaer come to town this Saturday and Sunday, and they are better than every ECAC team the Crimson has played this year, save maybe Brown.

"This is a huge, loud alarm bell," Coughlin said. "This is a crucial point in our season, and we have to answer the call."