Saturday night at Bright found the Harvard Crimson beating the Skating
Dutchmen of Union 5-2.  Harvard jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in the
first period and then sat back.  Union got swamped and never was able
to come back completely.
 
In the first period, Tom Holmes (Joe Craigen) opening the scoring for
the Crimson when he put home his backhand while cruising through the
slot.  The play occurred just after a Harvard power play.  Steve Martins
(Holmes) made it 2-0 on a penalty kill.  The skillful pair stole the
puck at center ice, accelerated up ice, and made a couple of pretty
passes before Martins hit high, near stick side.   The Crimson got
another shorthanded goal when Jason Karmanos (Kirk Nielsen) performed
a near identical play.  This time Karmanos shot low into the net.  Doug
Sproule (Nielsen) made it 4-0 Harvard when he connected on the power
play.  The situation developed off a bang-bang play from a face-off.
In the second, Harvard started to sit back and slowly Union got into
the game.  The Dutchmen got a power play goal when Charlie Moxham
(Cory Holbrough, Chris Ford) drilled his shot in from the left circle.
The play occurred after some good Harvard fore-checking and an even
better Union break in play.  In the final period, Russell Monteith
(Troy Stevens) shot home from a wide-angle while the Crimson goalie
flopped.  Union was starting to put some pressure on.  However Sproule
(Ashlin Halfnight) put Harvard back in charge of the game when he
put home a rebound.  Halfnight had intercepted a break out pass and
his point shot left Sproule with the ideal situation.
 
Union were overrun in the first period.  For much of the game they
looked flat.  When they did start moving I saw a team with potential.
I am guessing they had an off night.  On defense I liked the play
of Reid Simonton.  He was a major force on the ice and executed
some nice rushes along with his defensive duties.  Bill Moody and
Scott Boyd also had their moments on the blue line.  On the attack,
Troy Stevens and Chris Ford each showed some good speed and desire.
Ford also made some very good passes.
 
Harvard won the game because they came out looking for goals.  In the
end, they wasted this game in some ways, because instead of sitting
on their lead, they could have used this game to work on a variety of
details.  I've noticed that while Harvard use to be the first team on
the ice ready to go.  Over the last few years, they have become the
team that can never get on the ice when its time.  It is part of the
attitude of the team, and while it is easily to put aside, it says a
lot about this team.  On defense we had a night of "What's my D?".
You name the defensive pair, we saw it.  Jeremiah McCarthy got another
chance on the blue line and again he looked extremely solid.  He
should be on the first team all the time.  Halfnight played another
big night of break ups and setups.  Holmes and Martins played great
together on the shorthanded team, but were not on a regular line to-
gether.  Cory Gustafson had an excellent night passing the puck and
in general made his presence felt.  Sproule got two goals and played
on the number one power play unit with Martins and Nielsen down
low and Gustafson and Bryan Lonsinger/Halfnight at the points.  If
Sproule gets his skating worked out better, he could be a force for
Harvard.  Overall, not much of match.
 
The Harvard-Brown Men's game next Saturday (12/3) will probably be on
ESPN2.
 
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 good shooting
 rhun
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