Cagers, Icemen Notch Intersession Victories

The culprit was a sherwood, or maybe Greg Britz's thighs.

One thing was sure: It was sudden-death overtime Sunday afternoon at Bright Center and Clarkson's Don Sylvestri had no goalie stick. As a result, the Harvard hockey team is now in third place overall in the ECAC, thanks to a 4-3 victory over the Golden Knights.

Scott Fusco's goal 1:23 into the extra session enabled the Crimson, now 9-3-1 in the ECAC (11-4-1 overall), to leapfrog 8-3-1 Clarkson. But perhaps the most credit should go to Fusco's linemate Britz, for making himself so unpopular around the visitor's net.

Britz gained some enemies among the Clarkson defensemen for passing through Sylvestri's neighborhood a few times too often. Sophomore blueliner Dave Fretz, in particular, came to know Britz well enough to blindside him after the winning goal, leaving the Crimson right wing with a nasty welt on his neck.

But when Clarkson's former All-American goalie took matters into his own hands, it cost his team the game. The Golden Knights had just finished killing a penalty, called on Bruce McDonough for ripping Harvard's Jim Turner with 45 seconds left in regulation, when Sylvestri whacked his stick across Britz's thighs and broke it.

But the puck was still in the Clarkson end As Crimson Coach Bill Cleary said later. "The idea is just to keep the puck in the zone so [the goalie] can't get a new stick. "Sylvestri stopped one shot, a Mark Fusco blast from the point. But Turner passed the rebound back to Ken Code at the other point, who sent a blooper caroming off Scott Fusco's arm, off one goalpost and into the twines.

Even though the icemen had started post-exam practices only two days earlier, they weren't too surprised by their own performance. Some may have thought of the inspired intersession hockey they played against Clarkson two years ago in a last-minute 3-2 loss. But, said Code after Sunday's game, "I knew we were ready because we were really roaring at the end of practice Friday."

much good at first. Turner barreled down his wing, shot and was denied by Sylvestri. Clarkson winger Pat Haramis skated the other way, took a similar shot and scored, Seventeen seconds were gone.

But after Harvard survived two early penalties, the game took on a see-saw pattern that continued until overtime. Blueliner Code knotted it early in the third stanza when another of his off-speed slapshots beat Sylvestri on the stick side.

THE NOTEBOOK: Harvard has one more pre-Beanpot contest, a Saturday matchup with Yale at the New Haven coliscum...Eli Coach Tim Taylor was at Sunday's game for a preview...Following B. U. 's 6-3 dumping of the Golden Knights Friday night, this marked the second time a West Division power has lost two straight on a trip to Boston (St. Lawrence lost to B.C. and B.U. two week's ago.)