Icemen Fight Injuries, Tie Brown, 3-3

Kissing your sister is one thing.

Smearing her mouth with leftover mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce before kissing her is something else.

Such are the emotions which accompanied the Harvard men's hockey team in its 3-3 tie with Brown Friday (Turkey Day-Plus One) in Bright Hockey Center. The Crimson (4-1-1, 4-1-1 ECAC) got a strong 25-save performance from sophomore netminder Aaron Israel, but the Bears (3-2-1, 3-2-1) came back three times from one-goal deficits and Ryan Mulhern scored the final equalizer with 7:01 to play.

Mulhern's top-corner snipe past a screened Israel put a pretty lid on the evening of hockey, but those 3,033 intrepid alumni and students that braved the cold and distance to reach Bright suffered through a game of pumpkin-pie consistency--thick and gooey.

"[It was] a very difficult game to play--an awful lot of clutching and grabbing out there," Harvard Coach Ronn Tomassoni said. "But what pleased me more about this game is that we played a whole lot better defensively. We certainly didn't have as many turnovers as we did last weekend [at Colgate]."

With a tough road series ahead (not a home game in December), the Crimson badly wanted the same two points it got out of an overtime win against the Bears in Providence to start the year, but after dominating the first half of the extra frame, Harvard had to kill 40 seconds of a Ben Coughlin cross-check to end the game with one point.

Junior Bear defenseman Mike Traggio, in fact, narrowly missed the far post on a right point shot with six seconds to play. But with the tie, the fifth-ranked Crimson moved into first place in the ECAC with nine points, one ahead of idle Colgate and St. Lawrence.

"You're never happy with a tie, but with all the kids we have out right now I thought it was a heck of an effort for our guys," Tomassoni said.

Coughlin was among several unsung offensive heroes for the Crimson, scoring his second and third goals of the year on blasted point shots past Bears goalie Geoff Finch, the latter giving Harvard a 3-2 lead with 11:41 to play.

Sophomore Tom Holmes also picked up a goal and an assist, setting screens and generally pestering the otherwise pesky Brown defense.

"I don't think I've been playing any differently. The puck just bounced my way tonight," Holmes said. "My line [Holmes, Ian Kennish and Kirk Nielsen] has really started to play well together, and it paid off again tonight like it did last week."

Holmes would have had another score but for a sprawling breakaway stop by Finch, who with 28 sparkling saves was equal to most of the firepower the Crimson threw at him. On the whole he faced the tougher chances, including a stop on a cute Spin-o-Rama move by junior Cory Gustafson (were you watching, Denis Savard?).

Israel continues to impress at the Crimson end, allowing only a fluky Kelly Jones goal in the first 40 minutes and staving away several Brown chances late in the game, but like Tomassoni he didn't relish the outcome.

"It's tough," the goalie said, "tough to come away and not have a win. I think I played all right--I could have done a little something on [the Jones] goal, maybe on the second one, too. But I think everyone was hoping for a win this weekend, and to have to take the tie is disappointing."

With freshman Ashland Halfnight (bad back) joining senior Derek Maguire on the defensive injury list, the Crimson skated for the most part with only five blue-liners, a deficiency which the team overcame, however weary the final five minutes must have seemed.

"It's tough to lose those two [players]--they both do a lot on special teams in addition to defense," senior defender Lou Body said. "But the [defense] played really well tonight--we sucked it up when we had to, and for the most part we got the job done." TIE, 3-3 at Bright Hockey Center Harvard  1  1  1  --  3 Brown  0  1  2  --  3

First Period

Har--Holmes (Nielsen, Kennish) 2:39.

Second Period

Bro--Jones (Fabbro, Whittet) 3:55.

Har--Coughlin (Holmes, Body) 15:53.

Third Period

Bro--Mulhern (Flynn) 7:26.

Har--Coughlin (Martins) 8:19.

Bro--Mulhern (Jones, Jardine) 12:59.

Overtime

No Scoring.

Saves: Har--Israel 8-6-10-1-25; Bro--Finch 9-13-5-1-28.