Icemen Face Northeastern In Season Opener Tonight

High hopes for its biggest season in years with an eye on the Ivy League Crown, Harvard's hockey team opens its schedule against Northeastern at 8 p.m. tonight in Watson Rink.

The Crimson will be coming off a 13-2 slaughter of St. Nick's last Saturday night in which they demonstrated the depth of their scoring power.

"That game proved that we'll be stronger offensively this year," Coach Cooney Weiland said yesterday. "Every line has the ability to score goals."

But tonight's game should be a stiffer chalenge for Harvard than St. Nick's was, Weiland continued, "Northeastern would love to knock us off and they'll be up for the game," he said.

Winning Forwards

Harvard, healthy and anxious to start their season, will most likely look to its forwards for the win. Only Chris Gurry is returning from last year's defensive corps and so the Crimson is playing three new defensemen.

George McManama, who played forward on last year's team, has teamed with Gurry on the starting unit and has made the adjustment well. He assisted four goals last Saturday and Weiland plans to utilize his scoring power by using him on the power play.

Skip Freeman, who played a little defense last year, has joined sophomore Dave Jones on the second unit, and senior Tom Micheletti and sophomore Terry Driscoll form the third tandem.

Harvard's lines--all four of them--are "faster, speedier, and better passers than last year," according to Weiland. Most impressive is the sophomore line centered by Joe Cavanagh. He and his wings, Dan DeMichele and Steve Owen, scored 11 points in Saturday's rout with Cavanagh scoring three goals in the final period.

Captain Bobby Bauer centers a line of Ron Mark and Jim Hornig, and last year's high scorer, Jack Turko, has Dwight Ware and Pete Mueller on his flanks. The fourth line is George Murphy, Chip Otness and Andre Lemieux.

Senior Bill Diercks will start in the goal ahead of Bruce Durno.

'Skating Club'

Northeastern is also opening its season tonight, but its prospects are not as bright as Harvard's. They are young (only five seniors) and what their coach Jim Bell calls "a good skating club."

The key to the Northeastern team is its captain and goalie Ken Leu. He is an outstanding goalie. Weiland said, and any Northeastern hopes for an upset will hinge on a brilliant performance from him.

Weiland admitted yesterday that they were "getting ready for the tougher games coming up next week," but Northeastern will be only too anxious to trip up Harvard tonight as Brown shocked highly-touted B.U. Tuesday night.