Oh What A Night!

What a performance!

On a night when the Harvard men's hockey team needed a big win over St. Lawrence to solidify its rank in the ECAC standings and position itself for the ECAC tournament, it seemed like the skaters could do no wrong.

The offensive drought that plagued the team since the exam break was forgotten, and the frustration of last weekend's loss to Union evaporated like the steam from the rear of the Zamboni.

Players from all lines and positions stepped up to put the Saints to sleep.

And it all started on one of the more bizarre goals of the season.

Junior defenseman Peter McLaughlin's shocking score from center ice near the end of the first stanza, his first of the season, lit a fire under the Crimson that just couldn't be put out.

Think about that one for a minute--a short-handed goal from center ice, just after a line change.

The Saint goalie, Jon Bracco, stood dejectedly, shaking his head in disbelief, as a stunned McLaughlin stood at center ice, his arms raised in triumph.

But the defense wasn't through with Bracco.

Freshman Geordie Hyland recorded his first collegiate goal on a beautiful play off a feed from fellow defenseman Ashlin Halfnight.

Senior defenseman Bryan Lon-singer sent home a shot five minutes later, the final shot Bracco would face before being yanked.

At the rate it was going, the team probably would have had more trouble scoring with Amy Fisher than it would on Bracco.

The crowd took its cue, producing not one but two "black hole" cheers for the removed Bracco, and his replacement, freshman Clint Owen.

Finally, Michel Breistroff scored his first goal of the season to give Harvard its final goal.

What can you say?

"When the defensemen help out, and get four goals, it takes some presure from the forwards," McLaughlin said.

Not that the forwards needed help last night.

Harvard scored three of its eight goals on power plays and twice short-handed.

The power play continues to show marked improvement. Last night, Harvard set up nicely, took plenty of shots, and even when they didn't score, they made it close.

All of this means that the team stepped up in the face of the tremendous level of abuse that Steve Martins, the team's offensive catalyst, has been under this season.

Last night, Martins was again forced to trade his hockey gloves for boxing gloves; St. Lawrence banged him around like a pinball.

By game's end, Martins had spent ten minutes twiddling his thumbs in the sin bin.

"Martins is the premier player in the league," Harvard coach Ronn Tomassoni said. "I get disgusted with what teams do to him."

But the heat is off Martins if the Crimson can keep up the offense.

Now, the skaters must take last night's nosebleed into tonight's Clarkson matchup.

"To get both [games] at home [this weekend], it would be big for us," Tomassoni said.

Not big. Huge.