Wednesday night, back at Bright for a tedious match which the University of New Hampshire won 2-5 over the Harvard Crimson. Neither team showed me much, but the UNH coach was really into the game. In the closing minutes of the first period, Harvard scored when Perry Cohagan (Ben Coughlin, Michel Breistroff) redirected a centering pass. The puck had just been dumped around the boards, but Coughlin's pass provided a good setup. In the second, Doug Sproule (Steve Martins, Cory Gustafson) knocked home a 4 on 3 power play goal. The passing had been good and quick and Sproule's efforts in front were rewarded. Harvard was not playing that well, but seemed to decided they could sit on a 2-0 lead for a while. UNH came back with a shorthanded goal when Mark Mowers (Eric Flinton, Bryan Muir) finished off some nice passing on a long break in play. Flinton (Nick Poole, Eric Royal) tyed the match at two after the lazy Crimson defense had let the Wildcats flip the puck around the zone. I would add both teams were still not intense at this point. However for reasons unknown, Harvard's Martins decided to try and mix it up with a UNH player, and in the process got a penalty call on the Wildcat. That shot life into the UNH team. In the final period, Royal (Poole, Flinton) came out and on a simple break in play flipped the puck through the Crimson netminder (Tracy). Shortly afterwards, Royal (Flinton, Muir) cruised right in on the Harvard net, held the puck until the goalie flopped out of his way, and scored the easy goal. Poole (Todd Hall, Royal) finish the scoring with an empty net goal. UNH played the final period with just enough intensity to win easily. On the night it was regrettable that either team showed up, much less the supporters. I was impressed with the big line of Flinton, Royal and Poole. Flinton and Poole pulled off some very nice 1-2's. The overall speed of that line is very good. Harvard had few players showing up for this match. Peter McLaughlin had been playing some good steady hockey, and Wednesday evening he was easily the best player for the Crimson. He is breaking up plays well and is anchoring the defense. Breistroff is starting to look better. He still makes mistakes, but they are fewer, and he seems to have found some of his old form. Jeremiah McCarthy also made some good heads up play on the blue line. The attack was poor. The only line that looked fairly good was Sproule, Henry Higdon and Stu Swenson. They may be the fourth line, but at least they have a go and can string together a few passes. Overall, not an encouraging match for the Crimson. _____________ / good shooting rhun _____________/