The score pretty much tells the story.  Harvard outshot the Bears 32-14 and
had their own way for much of the action.  The score was 1-0 Harvard after
one period, but even at that juncture it was painfully evident from the
Brown standpoint that the Bears were being outmuscled in possession battles
taking place in all three ice zones, the end result being only 3 Brown
shots on net.  Brown goaltender, Mike Parsons, did his best to keep the
game scoreless for a while, but after some big saves for most of the
period, Harvard's Craig McDonald set up one of the Crimson superfrosh,
Craig Adams, in front of Parsons at 15:07 for the first goal.
 
        Coach Bob Gaudet: "We were tight and tentative.  It wasn't an
effort problem.  It was just one of those nights.  Harvard is a good team
and they took it to us.  I give them a lot of credit."
 
If play had been somewhat physical in the first period, Harvard really
stepped up the tempo in the middle stanza, and although the Bears' Brian
Jardine scored a power-play goal on a rebound of Marty Clapton's blue line
shot to narrow Brown's deficit to 2-1, the Crimson exploded for five goals
(shorthanded efforts by Brad Konik and Tommy Holmes in a span of 2:32, and
one power-play goal by Craig Adams which was more than reminicent of the
man-up bullets Steve Martins used to fire at goaltenders from his favorite
spot on the right side of the Crimson extra-man formation) as Brown
coughed-up the puck at inopportune times and resorted to some stick-holding
(Point of Emphasis #3) in an effort to slow their opposition.
 
 Coach Bob Gaudet: "The two short-handed goals killed us.  We had some
momentum at 2-1.  We had some good shifts.  Then they got a power-play goal
and it's 3-1.  They made some nice plays.  But it was far less their
execution as opposed to our tentativeness.  Our timing was off.  Things
were out of sync.  We were in the game and then all of a sudden....."
 
 With the game outcome pretty well determined, the third period reverted
back to the skating game of the initial stanza and both teams tallied a
goal apiece to produce the final score of 7-2.  Harvard's goal was the
result of a Craig McDonald shot on a power-play, and Brian Jardine slammed
home a power-play rebound off a 20-foot shot by Brent Hoiness for his
second goal of the evening.  Overall, Brown was 2 of 8 on the power play
and Harvard was 2 for 9.
 
Coach Bob Gaudet:  " The upside is that this is only the first game of the
season.  There's a long way to go.  We're a better team than we showed.  My
job is to get the guys to play with confidence and poise.  We didn't have
that tonight.  I feel badly about disappointing a really good crowd at our
home opener.  Harvard played very well and took advantage of our mistakes."
 
Bottom Line: Brown simply could not handle the Harvard forwards for most of
the evening and when the Bears got their forecheck to work effectively in
the last third of the contest, the outcome was no longer in doubt.  Make no
mistake, this edition of the Crimson appears ready to challenge any team in
the ECAC with skill, speed and goaltending.  Their next game this Friday
against Colgate in Hamilton, NY should confirm  the fact that Harvard is
back with another wagon after two sub-par (for Harvard) seasons in a row.
The Crimson controlled the puck in key situations when the game was still
competitive and then played solid defense for the balance of the match.
They were particularly impressive for an opening conference game played on
the road before a sell-out crowd of nearly 3,100 (500 late-arriving ticket
seekers were turned away by the fire marshal) and will certainly be
well-fortified for their trip to upstate New York next weekend.  Harvard
clearly wanted this game badly and they came out of the gate with a fire
and determination that was best evidenced by the fact that all of their
goals were slammed into the Brown net with authority...no finesse,
wrap-around or pile-up-in-front-of-the-net goals, just hard shots that
found the open spots.
 
So, back to the drawing board to look for a missing piece, someone who can
add someting.  Perhaps a freshman who hasn't dressed yet could change the
chemistry and scoring potential on one of the forward lines, or maybe a
shuffling of the defensive pairings would be advantageous.  But the
preparation and the line-ups for the upcoming Cornell-Colgate weekend
should be interesting.
 
Co-Captain Ryan Mulhern: " We didn't play well as a unit.  There were
definitely some first game jitters.  But by the third period we played a
little better.  No one really stepped it up.  We've got a lot of work to do
this week and we need a win to get us going."
 
So, it's roadtrip #1 for Bruno and yours truly this Friday-Saturday, and
the Bears will have to crank up their game a notch to emerge with some
success on the weekend.  At Cornell, it's the Big Red's ECAC home opener on
Friday night and Lynah will be rocking.  And on Saturday evening, Colgate
will have had to deal with Harvard (Brown's travel partner) on Friday nite,
so perhaps that will tend to level the ice somewhat at Starr Arena and
maybe the Red Raiders will not yet be quite as ready for prime time (please
note wishful thinking) as the Crimson appear to be and this juncture.
 
P. S.  Harvard visits Cornell on Saturday night for the first grudge match
of the new season -- it's the renewal of an annual release of
more-than-usual pent-up hockey emotion in Ithaca when the Lynah faithful
see Crimson.  Sort of like the rites of winter.
 
 
Bill Corrigan
 
LET'S GO BRUNO!
 
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