Varsity Skaters Travel to Yale; Lowly Bulldogs Primed for Upset

The report from Cappy Jones's sports information office was bubbling "Yale's hockey team enters the 1969-70 season with two definite goals in mind and in reach." it said. "A winning campaign and a spot in the eight-team ECAC Division 1 post-season playoffs."

The possibility of a winning season was eliminated on February 7, when the Elis lost their 12th game at Dartmouth, 10-6. The chance at a playoff berth had disappeared a little earlier, during Yale's nine-game, two-month losing streak.

But despite the Bulldog's miseries this season, neither Jones' office nor the Yale Daily News has yet despaired of the glowing promise that the Elis showed just one year ago when they shocked Harvard; 5-4. in overtime at New Haven. And not surprisingly, both news agencies feel that just one Yale victory in its two remaining games with the Crimson will salvage another dismal winter. and prove beyond doubt that the Elis, after all, are a truly solid hockey team.

Self-Deception

A preview article in the News last week indicates the lengths to which both Eli coach Jim Gagliardi and News staffers have carried their self-deception.

"The Yale offense has been plagued all season by an inability to score the crucial goal," it read. "Gagliardi considers this year's team one of the finest he's ever coached, but one deprived by bad luck and unfortunate injuries."

But the injuries were not there when the Elis lost their opener in November, 4-1, to St. Nicholas H. C. The bad luck hardly played a factor in Yale's 5-0 loss to slow-starting Boston University four days later. So it seems that the only conclusion one can logically draw from the Bulldog's 5-15 record, their recent losses to Brown; Princeton and Army, and their woeful lack of consistency is that Gagliardi has rashly overestimated the quality of his material.

Furthermore, several of Yale's most talented performers, including Bob Ufer and Greg Rivet, have not nearly approached their efforts of last year.

Ufer, the Bullodgs' leading scorer last winter, and the hero of the Harvard game victory, scored his first goal of the current season 14 days ago. Rivet, the toast of the freshman team that shocked Harvard last March, has tallied only 11 points this year. The offense is simply not there. And the defense, which has become increasingly ragged as the season has progressed, has betrayed goaltender John Cole's ability. His goal-per-game average is over five.

Chance of Duplication

Still, there is a chance that Yale can duplicate its upset of last March, but if that happens, it will be because Harvard blatantly gave them a victory. On paper, the Crimson is far superior. According to the record, Yale has an impossible task. But when one considers Harvard's 5-4 loss to Penn last month, and its shameful 5-4 overtime victory over Northeastern in the Beanpot tournament, itbecomes clear that the Crimson has been guilty of inexcusable overconfidence in the past. Yale, furthermore, has given it every reason to be overconfident tonight.

But there is not one Harvard player who did not come back from New Haven last March with a strong sense of needless humiliation. There is not one Harvard player who does not realize that a loss to Yale, either tonight at New Haven or next Saturday in Boston, eliminates the Crimson from consideration for home ice in the ECAC playoffs. And if Harvard does not know that tonight's game means the whole season for Yale, it has learned nothing from what happened last March. And it deserves to lose if it travels to New Haven with the same degree of smugness that it displayed last year.