Centers Turco and Cavanagh Add High-Scoring Potential to Crimson

Harvard hockey had a resurgence last year with a 15-9 record and a second place finish in the Ivy League, and this year Harvard hockey players have set their sights on the number one ranking in the East and the Ivy title.

Two big reasons for these expectations are centers Jack Turco, last year's high scorer, and Joe Cavanagh, whom Coach Cooney Weiland calls "one of the finest hockey prospects that's come up here."

The two are almost completely opposite in their style of play. Cavanagh is big by hockey standards at 5-10, 170 pounds, and likes to carry the puck into the zone and then work it to one of his wings for the shot. He is a strong, fast skater with deceptive moves, who can bull his way past a defenseman as easily as he can dribble past him.

Scrambles

Turco is slightly shorter at 5-9 but stockier at 170 pounds. Neither the swift skater nor the flashy skater that Cavanagh is, he relies more on tipins, rebounds, and scrambles in front of the net, "what they call garbage goals." he says.

"Our line (Turco, Dwight Ware and either George McManama or Pete Mueller) doesn't rely on the length-of-the-ice rushes as much as Cavanagh's does," he says. "We try to sustain the pressure in the offensive zone and take a lot of shots, while each one of Cavanagh's line can go all the way," he adds.

Cavanagh, who also says that his line likes to throw the puck into the zone and then forcecheck, has the great advantage of knowing his wings' moves perfectly. He has played with Dan "Monk" DeMichele every year but one since he was nine years old and they have acquired an instinctive knowledge of what the other one will do.

Pee Wee

Cavanagh started playing in the Pee Wee program in Cranston, R.I., and played on an All-State, All-New England team with DeMichele and his younger brother Dave (who is now on the freshman team) his senior year. He was "supposed" to go to Brown, he says, but he decided he wanted to come to Harvard so he took a year at Andover.

There he led a fair team to a 15-6 record and played tennis. Last year, he joined DeMichele and Steve Owen, his other wing, on the freshman team, and the three amassed 167 points in leading the freshmen to a 15-4 season, including an overtime victory over previously undefeated Yale in which Cavnagh scored the winning goal.

With DeMichele, who is 6-2, 216 pounds, and Owen, who is only 5-6 but weighs 170, Cavanagh's line is the biggest on the team. They also have the most lethal shot. DeMichele has a hard left-handed slap shot and Owen, who plays right wing although he also is a left-hander, has a quick, hard wrist shot.

"I kind of watch them and get the rebounds," Cavanagh says, but he too has a sharp, accurate shot capable of beating any goalie.

Cavanagh also played alternately at number one and number two on the freshman tennis team in the spring and captained the squad.

Wee Pee

Turco's hockey career started in the Pee Wee program also, but he had begun skating at the age of three. He played varsity football, baseball, and hockey for Melrose High School, and then applied and was accepted at Harvard. He decided, however, that he wanted to take an extra year at prep school, and so he deferred his acceptance at Harvard for one year.

He played three varsity sports at Andover--quarterback in football, center in hockey, and catcher in baseball. The hockey team included Chris Gurry and Skip Freeman, both of whom play for Harvard's varsity, and Dick Delaney and Ford Fraker, who play for the J.V.

Turco played three sports in his freshman year at Harvard, but last year he dropped football and started as catcher on the varsity baseball team.

Optimism

Turco shares the team's optimism about this season. "The scoring ability is 100 per cent improved," he says, "although our defense is definitely a question mark. I wouldn't say that it is weak; it's more that, with the exception of Gurry, it's inexperienced."

Both Turco and Cavanagh should insure that the defense has a comfortable cushion on which to make mistakes and gain experience. Weiland characterizes them both as "unselfish" players who are always willing to pass to the wing for the score, and that type of attitude usually wins games.