Gutsy Performance Has Hockey in Show

Harvard intended to capitalize on the momentum from the previous night's amazing comeback. The Crimson wanted to put a likely demoralized Colgate team away early and avoid a Sunday game.

The Crimson accomplished exactly what it wanted, opening up a three goal lead, but Colgate was not about to board the team bus back to Hamilton, NY. However, Prestifilippo had no intention of letting his team play Sunday either.

Referee Alex Dell picked up right where he left off Friday, calling every single infraction, no matter how minor. Harvard did likewise, striking on the power play, but this time on a more normal 5-on-4 advantage.

Freshman Chris Bala, showing no signs of the thumb injury suffered Friday, opened the scoring on the power play just 3:47 into the first. He intercepted a Colgate pass at the blueline and trickled a shot through Brenzavich's legs on the breakaway.

Brenzavich limited the Crimson to just one goal for the first period, but Scorsune struck on the power play at of the second on a shot through traffic from the right faceoff circle.

"The game was called pretty tight, but our special teams were excellent," Tomassoni said. "I was even more pleased tonight because we did it on the five-on-four."

Harvard's third goal was not only the game-winner, but the prettiest of the weekend.

Just after time expired on another power play, junior Rob Millar threaded a pass to McCarthy from the left faceoff circle to the right. The captain roofed it for a 3-0 lead.

"Millar just gave me a perfect pass and I managed to put it home," McCarthy said.

Colgate poured on the offense in the last two periods, barraging Prestifilippo with a total of 34 shots, most of them down low.

He made an improbable save in the second as he lay prostrate out of the net and stretched his body across to glove a shot by Andy MacDonald.

"I thought for the last two periods we really carried the play," said Colgate Coach Don Vaughan. "We just could not get one by [Prestifilippo]."

Despite the high shot totals, the Crimson defense tightened on the penalty kill. Colgate went just 1-for-10 with the man advantage, only tallying on junior Dan Wildfong's rebound shot at 18:01 of the second.

Harvard killed a 1:35 two-man advantage in the first period, allowing just one shot on goal--a shot from the point which Prestifilippo easily kicked away.

"Special teams were a big part of this weekend," said Vaughan. "We had a chance to get back in this one, and they did a great job killing it off."

Steve Moore added an empty net goal with 52 seconds left to play.

At 19:34, freshman defenseman Cory Murphy scored a meaningless goal for Colgate to make the final score 4-2.

This was a wonderful weekend for Harvard. A team loaded with freshman and sophomores with little to no playoff experience displayed heart in coming back from a third-period deficit, withstood two late game assaults, all while capitalizing on a truly dangerous power play.

This type of play not only excited the best crowds of the year at Bright, but should keep them coming back.

Thanks to some fortuitous bunches of the puck elsewhere in the league, the Crimson is seeded number three and avoids an extra game this Thursday night.

"It's just a great feeling right now," Turco said. "Now we have to go down there and finish the job."

Harvard is going to Lake Placid. Maybe the Crimson will make its own miracle on ice.