Saturday night at Bright the Vermont Catamounts creamed Harvard 0-5.  The
flowing play and tough defense of UVM kept them in control of the game
the entire evening.  The Crimson played better than on Friday night, but
lacked any form of direction, except some hazy idea that team defense is
the number one priority.
 
The penalty filled match started with Harvard skating fairly well.  The
Cats however were all over the ice with their efficient strides and
excellent puck movement.  Vermont opened the scoring with a power play
goal by Eric Perrin (Martin St. Louis, Dominique Ducharme).  Perrin
finished off a lovely setup with a low cross ice shot.  UVM made it 0-2
with another power play goal when J.C. Ruid (Perrin, St. Louis) flipped
the puck over the sprawling Crimson goalie Tripp Tracy.  The play came
off a face-off and was again setup by some quick, accurate passing.  In
the second, Harvard started to string a few passes together, but the
tough stand-up defense of Vermont kept them off the score sheet.
Meanwhile the Cats continued to do their thing which resulted in a power
play goal.  Ruid (Mike Larkin, St. Louis) tipped in a blast from the
point by Larkin.  In the final period Harvard slowed down noticeably and
a plethora of line juggling set in.  UVM was trying to protect their lead
a little too much, but the Crimson just didn't have it.  In the final
minutes of play, Matt Stelljes knocked in an empty net goal to make it
0-4 Vermont.  Then with Tracy back in goal, Ducharme (Dale Patterson)
finished a break in play by drilling his shot into the back of the net.
 
Vermont played extremely well.  They certainly have one of the more
talented squads I have seen at Bright this season.  Their flowing
attacking was a lot of fun to watch.  The man of the match had to be the
UVM first line of: Ruid, Perrin and St. Louis.  Ruid is a big attacker
who is always looking for the half chance.  Perrin is a great center who
can really move.  St. Louis had good quickness, wonderful moves and nice
passing skills.  The other classic forward I saw was Ducharme.  He made a
number of super plays.  On the blue line Jason Williams played with great
intelligence.  Larkin and Eric Hallman were the heart of the UVM
defensive toughness.  Those two were very difficult to get around.  In
goal Tim Thomas showed off his quick glove.  Thomas faced the shooter and
always looked like he would earn his shutout with his calm, strong play.
Overall the Cats looked very strong and should do very well in the play-offs.
 
Harvard is at 6's and 7's.  There just is not much leadership on the
team.  Last night they played better, but not really as a team.  An
individual or two might get moving, but the team looks very lost.  The
Crimson played five defenders last night with Ashlin Halfnight sitting it
out in the press box.  Peter McLaughlin and Geordie Hyland had pretty
good games.  McLaughlin was Harvard's best player on the weekend with his
tough defense.  Hyland made a number of smart break up plays and his
attacking feeds were good.  The forward with the most energy was Tommy
Holmes.  He was really flying out there.  Unfortunately, following the
example of a certain speedy senior, Holmes also took a stupid 5 minute
major penalty.  The only line that played that well was: Jason Karmanos,
Kirk Nielsen and Holmes.  They did put together a few passes and looked
dangerous at times.  Doug Sproule continued to play his high tempo hustle
game.  Brad Konik showed some interesting attacking ideas.  Captain Ben
Coughlin got a ton of ice time this weekend and I thought played very
well.  He is back on form and doing a lot of the little things correct
that help out the team.  If a few other players followed his good
example, the team might be in better shape.  The other player back online
is Michel Breistroff.  He still takes chances, but that is part of his
game.  Breistroff's long break out passes from his own zone are what the
Crimson need.  It was good to seem Coughlin and Breistroff playing with
confidence again.  Overall, Harvard needs to reboot.  The grinder system
hasn't worked.  Its about time the likes of Martins, Gustafson, Konik,
Halfnight, Holmes ... stop the nonsense and get on with their games.
 
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 good shooting
 rhun-hungerf
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