(This article did not make it through to HOCKEY-L yesterday.
Try, try again .. wts)
 
Well, I watched the first two periods before getting kicked out of my
company's health club. :-) Harvard was leading, 5-1, after two periods, and
based on several posts tonight, they held on to win and meet RPI in the ECAC
Finals tomorrow night.
 
In the 1st period, Harvard came out strong, as Lou Body (Kirk Nielson) tipped
in a Nielson wrist shot from the high slot. Nielson made a nice play to
intercept Brown's pass and stick handle into the slot. Several minutes later
on the power play, Sean McCann (Derek Maguire, Chris Baird), knocked in a
rebound of a Maguire slap shot over a fallen Geoff Finch. McCann (Baird,
Maguire) scored again on the PP when he one-timed a Baird pass in the left
face-off circle through Finch's pads. After a timeout, Brown scored when Mike
Traggio's (Scott Humber) shot from the point deflected off Bryan Lonsinger
into the Harvard goal. Late in the period, McCann (Baird, Maguire) completed
his natural hat-trick by rifling a shot over the shoulder of Finch. The first
period ended with Harvard up, 4-1.
 
In the second period, Nielson (Karmanos) sent a wrist shot between Finch's
legs. Karmanos made a nice play to steal the puck inside Brown's blue line and
feed Nielson. Finch was screened by the defenseman covering Nielson. A scary
moment occurred later in the period when Maguire went to check a Brown forward
several feet away from the side boards. The two players collided and Maguire
went headfirst into the boards and lay motionless on the ice. At first I
thought he might have injured his neck, but after several minutes he managed
to leave on his own feet with a gash on his forehead. Does anyone know if he
returned or the status of his injury?
 
Harvard forechecked very well tonight, especially Cory Gustafson and Karmanos.
The third line of Karmanos-Nielson-Ben Coughlin got a lot of ice time and they
played well. Nielson played extremely well. Ashlin Halfnight showed some nice
stickhandling. Tripp Tracy played well but he really scared me by coming out
of the net often. One thing that worried me was that after Harvard went up
5-1, they seemed to just go into a defensive mode, content to hold onto the
lead, instead of maintaining their attacking pressure.
 
Sean McCann -- one night after being the first Harvard defenseman to be named
a Hobey Baker finalist since Harvard legend, Mark Fusco -- got a natural hat
trick, all power play goals.
 
 
Good luck to Harvard and RPI tomorrow!
 
Note: It's a miracle I actually got see this game, living in the great hockey
town of Redwood Shores. :-)
 
-- Lloyd
Harvard '93
"The Black Bears? What a stupid name!" -- teammate on my amateur hockey team,
the San Francisco Black Bears.
 
**********************************************************************
*  Lloyd Hsu                       *   UNIX Development              *
*  [log in to unmask]              *   Oracle Corporation            *
*  (415) 506-6938                  *   Redwood Shores, CA            *
**********************************************************************