Icemen Trounce Northeastern, 8-4

"Sophomore Power" was the key as forward Steve Owen and center Joey Cavanagh paced Harvard's varsity hockey team to its second consecutive victory, an 8-4 triumph over Northeastern last night in Watson Rink.

Owen tallied three goals and had four assists, and Cavanagh, last year's high scorer for the freshmen, scored the first two Harvard goals of the game and contributed two assists.

Dan DeMichele, the other forward on Cavanagh's line chipped in one goal and two assists as Harvard's startling sophomores, including defensemen Terry Driscoll and Dave Jones, had a hand in all eight Crimson tallies.

Harvard finally exhibited the depth for which head coach Cooney Weiland has been reaching for the past two years--a depth sorely lacking from last year's squad especially on defense--as he was able to play four forward lines and three defensive units the entire game.

Junior George McManama, switched from defense to the forward line for the game, turned in a particularly strong performance, netting one goal and setting up another.

Defenseman Chris Gurry had his usual head-knocking night, but also managed to score once and set up two goals.

First Period Even

Harvard began slowly in its first home appearance as the Huskies underrated defense led by phenomenal goalie Ken Leu played them even for the opening half of the first frame. But Leu couldn't deny the Crimson much longer as Cavanagh finally snared a center pass from DeMichele and found the range at 12:21.

About four minutes later he lifted a rebound over the sprawled-out North-eastern goalie for his second score. DeMichele hit on a hard 40-foot slap shot from the left point with only 47 seconds left to play to finish Harvard's first period scoring.

Goalie Bill Dierks came through with some tremendous saves as he shut out the Huskies the entire first frame, but they finally got past him for two quick goals in the penalty-filled second period.

With Harvard's Jim Horning out because of tripping, Northeastern's Dave Poile tipped in a rebound off Dierks' pads at 6:23. Less than a minute later, Glenn Eramo scored N.U.'s only other goal of the period.

Owen retaliated for the Crimson, scoring his first two goals within 20 seconds of each other, and the Harvard defense stopped the Huskies for the rest of the period, as both teams sloppily racked up nine penalties between them.

Both teams began to tire, and the third period degenerated into sloppier hockey and a near slug-fest. Poile and Knight hit for Northeastern's final goals, and Owen, McManama, and Gurry tallied to put the game on ice for the Crimson.