Martins--Unassisted

The Harvard men's hockey team ended its 1994-95 season Saturday night by suffering a 3-1 loss against the RPI Engineers.

Did the season end too soon?

Well, Obviously, Harvard hockey fans young and old don't usually expect the season to end until the first week in April.

But the loss to RPI serves as an all-too-fitting reminder of how the season has gone week-in and weekout.

Countless times during the game, the puck simply didn't bounce Harvard's way: a goal was waived off, pucks were tipped barely wide, and once again the hottest goal was waived off, pucks were tipped barely wide, and once again the hottest goaltender in the league seemed to surface Bright Hockey Arena. But then again, that would only be making excuses for the team.

But the number of one-and two goal losses this year begs the question "What if?"

The team started the year with such high expectations: from the media, from the students, from the alumni and--most importantly--from the players and coaches themselves.

But as the season progressed, all of the outside groups kept waiting for the real team to stand up.

The team that would start with one player as the foundation--Steve Martins--would end the season with Martins as it lone torchbearer.

Everyone kept waiting for the team's other talent to appear--to ride in on that white horse and rescue the underachievers.

The fact is, that team never arrived. From day one, however, the Crimson was a group of 20-odd players who showed that they would put in an extraordinary effort day-in and day-out and not let up. They did not care what anyone thought, except themselves.

Just when you thought it was safe to count them out for the season, back they came with an effort above and beyond what was expected.

"It's just too bad that they work so darn hard and can't see the results," Harvard coach Ronn Tomassoni said.

But alas, there is no NCAA tournament bid for hard work.

But Saturday night's game against RPI was the most fitting way to end the season, if ever there was such a way.

Harvard mustered only three goals in its last 120 minutes of play, and Saturday night, it could only tally one.

Just look at the box score.

Steve Martins, as he did all year, provided the only score of the game, and he did it unassisted.

In fact, Martins was--on the whole--unassisted all year. Granted, this was a team stacked with extraordinary individual talent beyond Martins: several players had huge games in clutch situations, scoring goals without any help from the senior forward.

But when this season is looked back on, March 11, 1995 told the tale.

In RPI's locker room, a sheet of paper with "KEYS TO VICTORY" hung near the entrance.

Guess what was mentioned above all others?

"#27 [Martins]--chippy player, will retaliate--KEY TO TEAM."

Yet there were other factors: RPI's pesky shorthanded unit, always pressuring Harvard's pointmen on the power play, hardly allowing them to set up.

But after all the ups and downs, after the roller coaster of a lifetime, one statistic alone will tell anyone who asks how the 1994-95 season went: its record. Oh, if numbers could talk, what volumes they would speak: