Icemen Overwhelm Tigers

Two short-lived misconceptions were disposed of at Baker Rink last night--that Princeton hockey, after two narrow losses and a victory over Yale, was in the midst of a Renaissance, and that Harvard after four consecutive losses, was rapidly disintegrating with the ECAC playoffs only two weeks away.

It took the Crimson 2 minutes and 9 seconds to shatter both illusions at the Tiger's Gothic ice house. By that time, Dave Hynes and Bob Havern had scored within 27 seconds of each other, and Harvard was well on its way to a devastating 9-0 triumph that did much to restore any confidence that the team had lost during the past two weeks.

"We are getting back to it now," said a jubilant coach Bill Cleary, after his squad had won its 13th of the winter. "We went back to fundamentals, especially our forechecking, and we got results. We passed the puck well and looked better around the net. It was encouraging."

The match was a perfect tonic for Harvard's morale. It was no contest from the beginning, and degenerated from there. Bob McManama knocked in a Hynes rebound to put the Crimson ahead 3-0 after the first period, and Billy Corkery added a pair of power play goals to increase the score to 5-0 after the second.

In fact, so complete was the Crimson's domination that Princeton was unable to put a shot on net for the first 12 minutes of the second period, and when they finally did, Harvard goaltender Joe Bertagna was there to brush them aside. The junior netminder, who just might end up as an all-Ivy selection, stopped 15 shots including a pair of breakaways by Roger Kyle, before giving way to replacement Steve Perry after his teammates had run up a 7-0 lead.

Tempers Flare

By then, tempers had begun to flare. Crisp, thoughtful passing on the Harvard power play set up Larry Desmond for the Crimson's-sixth goal with 8 minutes gone in the third period. Bob Havern slipped the second of his three goals past confused Princeton goalie Phil Robinson 40 seconds later.

Seconds afterwards, Tiger Brian Macintosh cross-checked Havern, touching off a brawl that resulted in six penalites, and two shattered frames of plexiglass when overzealous Princeton supporters crashed onto the ice from the stands. The majority of the Crimson squad remained on the bench throughout the scuffle, and returned minutes later to chalk up another power play goal, with Doug Elliott firing in a set-up from the point.

Havern completed his hat trick with 3 minutes to play, tipping in Mark Noonan's slap shot from the right point, and Harvard left the rink with its most decisive and badly needed victory of the season.

So the Ivy title is still a possibility, and home ice for the ECAC playoffs seems assured, and if "Crimson is an ugly color", as a sign in the Princeton locker room stated. Harvard is determined to make it look even uglier at New Haven and Providence, and later at Boston Garden.