Yale Downs Swimmers; Elis Tie Sextet, 5-5

Jolted by two Eli goals in the first 48 seconds and one with 20 seconds remaining to play, the varsity sextet was tied, 5 to 5, by an inferior Yale team at New Haven's Ingalls Rink Saturday night in its last game of the season. With nothing at stake but Harvard's hockey supremacy, unchallenged since the 1951-52 season, the standoff was little better for the Crimson than a defeat.

Throughout the evening Yale's first line, on the ice for all but one of the goals, forechecked and scrapped in a disorganized--though fired-up--attack. The whole team responded to the highly partisan crowd, which cheered whenever a Yale man touched the puck.

Most of the Crimson team also rose to the occasion, especially the first line, Paul Kelley, and defensemen Dick McLaughlin and Mike Graney, each of whom played his last game for the varsity. The sophomore line showed some of its best hockey this year, accounting for the Crimson's two first period goals.

The only exception was goalie Harry Pratt, who was far below his usual performance and ordinarily would have handled most of the four Yale goals scored from beyond 35 feet. Neither Pratt nor the varsity was ready for the wild attack launched by the Elis from the opening faceoff. Left-wing John Schley fought for the puck along the boards and passed across to center ice, where defenseman Bruce Smith fired Yale's first shot. As Pratt seemed distracted by action along the boards, the 40-foot waist-high blast whistled into the right corner for a goal at 0:25.

Second Goal From Same Spot

Even before the announcement could be made, the Elis were back in Harvard ice, and when Smith's second shot from exactly the same spot caught the same corner 23 seconds later, the turtle-shaped roof nearly blew off. With a 2-0 score after only 48 seconds, nearly everyone had visions of a Yale rout.

But the Crimson settled down to control play, and when the period ended Harvard had made 19 shots to Yale's nine, and the score was tied at 2 to 2. Dave Crosby opened the varsity's scoring at 4:38, firing a backhander past Jones after taking a pass from Graney.

The Elis went ahead again at 1:17 of the second period, again on a 40-foot drive by Smith from center ice nicked into the right corner by Ed McGonagle.

Three Penalties in Five Minutes

At the ten-minute mark, the varsity had to survive their only three penalties of the game, called within five minutes. The last was a preposterous call on Crocker Snow for playing with a broken stick only four seconds after he had fractured it in a faceoff and been knocked off his feet. The Crimson held Yale off without a good-shot, and Bud Higginbottom quickly tied the score a 3 to 3 when he took a pass at center ice, turned the defense, and rifled the disk past Forstmann.

Seconds after an Eli shot bounced off the post, Pratt juggled Hoyt Ammidon's 35-footer between his legs for a goal at 5:55 of the third period. The Crimson retaliated with goals at 7:03 and 8:06 by Collins and Higginbottom, both on rebounds from shots by a defenseman. Then with the score 5 to 4 and time running out, Yale was in the process of pulling its goalie when McGonagle rapped a high shot past Pratt from 10 feet to send the game into overtime.

Although Dick Reilly, Dick Fischer, and Higginbottom all had chances to win the game during the extra ten minutes, Forstmann fell on the puck often enough to hold on for a tie. The game ended as Crocker Snow narrowly missed breaking away at the Eli blue line.