Mr. Ungracious Returns to Bright

When Terry Slater loses, he cruises. A few curses for his team, a few grumbles for the press, and he's gone.

The Colgate hockey coach, like his squad, has never taken defeat in stride. When the final score favors the opposing team, Slater starts rehearsing for his role in Star Wars IV.

Darth Vader, warmed over.

Terry Slater was never named Mr. Congeniality in high school. Last night, Harvard gave Slater more than enough incentive to become Mr. Ungracious.

The Crimson reversed the result of a December loss to the Red Raiders in Hamilton, N.Y., storming to a 4-1 victory at Bright Center. The teams fought to a 1-1 tie at the end of two periods, but then Harvard got someone to fix its boiler room.

John Murphy put in the go-ahead goal with 16 minutes left in the third period. C.J. Young added a breakaway goal 14 minutes later. And, for good measure, Don Sweeney put the puck in an empty Raider net in the game's final minute.

Defeat couldn't have come to a better bunch of bandits. Colgate makes the Los Angeles Raiders--the NFL's bad boys--look like Sunday school children.

In December, Colgate got more bang for the puck and beat then-undefeated Harvard. After that game, Slater--who wore a smile for the first time this decade--said, "Both teams put pads on before the game. We use ours."

Colgate knocked down four Harvard skaters that day and sent forward John Weisbrod on a two-month holiday, courtesy of a knee injury.

"We really wanted to beat them," Murphy said after last night's game. "We didn't like the way they played up there. We wanted to beat them for that reason."

In its own rink, Harvard is able to play the game it likes most--a skating game. Skating, for Harvard, does not mean simply going up and down the ice, but putting jet propellers on its skates and soaring. Making passes as crisp as fresh potato chips. Making moves as debonaire as Cassanova's.

"It was a back-and-forth game," Harvard goalie John Devin said. "It's one of those games where the ebb and flow changed."

For the first 40 minutes, the game looked eerily similar to the earlier contest in upstate New York. The Raiders relied on their excellent goaltender, Wayne Cowley, long on hair and stellar saves.

Meanwhile, Harvard plugged away, throwing shot after shot at Cowley, who recorded 38 saves in the first meeting.

"What he did up there [in Hamilton]--he was sensational," Harvard Coach Bill Cleary said. "He carried that on today."

But Harvard, too, had a goalie. The ECAC's leading goalie, as a matter of fact.

"[Devin] stood up and challenged them," Cleary said. "He didn't try to be fancy. He made the big saves when they had to be made."

In the battle of goalies, Cowley eventually cracked. Murphy got his goal, on a pretty pass from Andy Janfaza.

With 2:51 left in the game, Crimson defenseman Josh Caplan fell down, and ECAC leading-scorer Rejean Boivin and linemate Brad Martel took the opening, coasting in on Devin.

Boivin popped a shot, but it hit the right post and went skirting out toward the midline. Peter Ciavaglia found it there, and sent it Federal Express to C.J. Young.

Young kept the gift for 60 feet, until he donated it to the Colgate net for a 3-1 Crimson lead. Advantage: Harvard.

Before departing into the black night, Slater muttered "Post, post."

Don't you mean Postman, coach? Last night, Harvard rang a second time.