Saturday evening at Bright Hockey Center found the Harvard Crimson
outskating the Bears of Brown 4-1.  Brown has a very quick team, but seem
to have trouble connecting when they come to Cambridge.  Harvard pulled
out a good team effort which feature some of their better skating of the
season.
 
In the first period, at the end of a Harvard power play Joe Craigen
(Ashlin Halfnight, Peter McLaughlin) convert a point shot rebound under
the goalie's pads.  Brown had come out fast, but Harvard had weathered
the storm and started its big fore-check game.  In the second, Steve
Martins (Cory Gustafson, Geordie Hyland) made it 2-0 Harvard on another
power play.  Hyland controlled the zone and setup Gustafson who found
Martin's with a lovely pass at the backdoor.  Doug Sproule (Martins,
Gustafson) poke home a rebound for yet another Crimson power play goal.
At the start of the final period, Scott Bradford (Brian Jardine, Damian
Prescott) got Brown back in the game when the Harvard goalie flopped out
of sight.  Brown was starting to push, but Harvard surged back when
Gustafson (Brad Konik, Michel Breistroff) finished off a wonderful play,
just after the Crimson had killed a 5-3 Bear power play.  Breistroff
intercepted a Brown break out pass and feed Konik.  Konik skated the puck
into the zone and held it long enough to setup Gustafson in the slot.
Gustafson let it rip and roofed the puck.
 
Brown has a very fast team.  In fact I would rank them as the best team I
have seen at Bright this season.  Saturday night things did not go their
way, but with the team speed they have, I have to expect the Bears to be
right around the top of the ECAC all year.  Right now they seem to lack
some confidence, and were unable to go up the gut on Harvard.  I was very
impressed with the line of Jardine, Eric Trach and Ryan Mulhern.  Jardine
can really burn out on the ice.  In addition he made some excellent
passes and dug for the puck very well.  Trach was another speedy forward
who had very good stick skills.  I also liked the line of Prescott, Mike
Flynn and Tony Martino.  They played extremely well as a unit.  On
defense I found Ron Smitko to be very cool under fire.  Overall,  I think
Brown is a very strong team.  It is good that the Crimson produced one of
their better efforts, because otherwise they could have been blown off
the ice by the quick Bears.
 
The Harvard players pulled off a big win.  They started to play with more
confidence, and Brown certainly forced them to skate.  On defense we
again got "musical partners".  The best looking pair were Halfnight and
Hyland.  Together they make for an awesome blue line couple.  Both can
skate, both have great sticks, like to join the attack, but can take a
hit and give a clean hit.  Hyland is a big guy and his soft hands and
intelligent play are greatly welcomed.  Then if you want the ultimate
dream shorthanded team, take those two and pair them with the electric
Martins and Holmes.  Who has the power play?  Hyland also played on the
power play at the point.  He would be very good down low, because his
size along with his skill would cause total chaos in most defenses.
Halfnight had his usual stellar night making big plays at both ends of
the ice.  His setups are so lovely to watch.  The man of the match had to
be Cory Gustafson.  He was gunning it all night.  He made several good
team defense plays, but his passing was even better.  Gustafson also
scored the killer goal, and with style.  Martins had a great night on
special teams.  He can kill a penalty so well, because that is the only
time he seems to be allowed to use his speed full out.  Pity we can't use
him that way on his line and during the power play!  The new line of Ben
Coughlin, Konik and Perry Cohagan looked very good together.  They need a
little time, but could be a big scoring line.  Stu Swenson, Henry Higdon
and Sproule also played a good hustle game.  They were the most
consistent line for the Crimson.  Kirk Nielsen still seems one step away
from doing something special.  He is starting to come closer, but has yet
to hit the kind of performance I feel he should produce every game.
Overall, a big win and a huge plus for the players.  They came through
against a very strong team.
 
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 good shooting
 rhun
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