Eastern Olympic Team Drops Crimson Puckmen During Sudden-Death Playoff

It's not easy to blow a four-goal lead in less than one period of hockey, but that's what the Crimson skaters did Saturday night in an 8-7 overtime loss to the Eastern Olympic Hockey Club at Watson Rink.

Gene Kinasewich '64, captain of the 1963-64 team and second highest scorer in Harvard history, scored a goal and assisted on three to spark the late-blooming Olympic attack. Dave Morse '62, also a former Harvard captain, contributed two goals, including the winning score.

The Harvard line met a big barrier at times in the form of Pete Eygis, the visiting goalie. But the Crimson kept up steady barrage of shots, and with several minutes gone in the third period they held a fat 7-3 lead.

But Kinasewich, Morse, and high scorer Leo Dupere caught fire to bring the Olympics back within one goal.

And Harvard, thoroughly stunned, could not hang on. At 19:10 Kinasewich fed Bobby Quinn from behind the cage, and Quinn rammed the puck home to tie it up.

With the sudden-death overtime period less than a minute old, Barry Jacks let go with a forty-footer. Morse deflected it past goalie Bill Diercks, and the game was over.

Harvard's early lead

The Olympics scored the first goal of the game in the opening minutes, but Ben Smith and Barry Johnson were quick to put Harvard in the lead 2-1.

At 0:25 of the second frame Dupere teamed up with Kinasewich for the second straight time to knot the score. But from then until the third-period explosion it was almost all Harvard.

Jack Garrity and Johnson each scored on breakaways, and Chip Scammon connected with a slap shot from his defense position. The second period ended 5-3, when Quinn broke in on Bill Fitzsimmons to score for the visitors.

Sophomore Pete Mueller got back-to-back goals as the third period opened, to bring the lead to its 7-3 peak. Mueller and Johnson were playing in their first varsity game, and the two goals the linemates got gave them a good case for more action as the season progresses.

Harvard's attack, though ragged at times, outshot the Olympics and controlled play most of the time. But Eygis made a dozen beautiful saves to frustrate Crimson opportunities.

The game was an unofficial one for Harvard, and Coach Cooney Weiland took advantage of that fact to give his sophomores a lot of playing time. And with Captain Dennis McCullough out of town, Weiland juggled his lineups considerably.

Everything worked beautifully for about 50 minutes.