Icemen Face Quakers in Ivy Contest

Penn's varsity hockey squad has been having its problems this season with Ivy League opponents, and tonight should be no exception as the Crimson invades Philadelphia to take on the Quakers for the second time this season.

All of Penn's five losses on an otherwise good 10-5-1 record have come at the hands of Ivy foes, including a 9-1 thrashing by Harvard earlier in the year at Watson Rink. Yale, Cornell, Dartmouth and even hapless Princeton have made life in the Ivy League miserable for the Quakers.

Brown is the only Ivy team that Penn has beaten, and that happened twice, the latest coming a week ago in a 5-3 contest at Penn. The Quakers managed a tie with Yale, scoring late in the third period to knot the game at two.

Numero Uno

Harvard is still the best in the East. The team proved it Wednesday night when it trounced Vermont, 8-4, in Burlington. Coming out of a troubled post-exam period that saw the Crimson get beaten badly by B.U., lose the services of Dave Hynes and become surrounded with predictions of a slump, the squad had to face the best of ECAC's Division II in one of the noisiest rinks in New England. The Crimson came out of it with a big win, showing that Harvard is still one of the top contenders in the country.

Harvard remains atop the ECAC Division I, and finds itself in a wild Ivy League scramble with Cornell and Dartmouth. Penn, despite its poor record, is also in the thick of it, hovering in a tie for fourth behind the three co-leaders. Tonight's game will be a crucial one for both clubs.

The Quaker offense is led by Dietrich Gyetko, who has notched up 25 points on 6 goals and 19 assists, and winger Bill MacDonell, the leading goal scorer with 11 and 24 points total.

Defensively, Penn is led by goalie Tim McQuiston and Mike Hubbert. McQuiston sports a 3.1 goals against average and a save percentage of 88.7. Hubbert was named to the All-East team for his play last week in games with Providence, Yale and Brown, coming up with a goal and two assists against the Bruins.

The School on The Hill

Crimson coach Bill Cleary will most likely go with the same lines that he used against Vermont. McManama will be centering Bill Corkery. Mather House's Larry Desmond, along with Randy Roth, Jim Thomas and Bob Goodenow make-up the second line. Jim McMahon centers Dave Gauthier and Ted Thorndike on the third line, while Harry Reynolds, Steve Dagdigian and Lee Hogan combine as the fourth line.

On the power play, Jim Thomas proved very effective on the point in the Vermont game, with Harvard converting on three of four-man advantage opportunities. Goodenow and Roth also performed well on the power play, as they have all season long, with Corkery and McManama.

Elasticity

Overall, the team has shown that it has the ability to bounce back this year and despite its past troubles, Harvard should remain the number one squad in the East. Penn should be "quaking" in their skates before tonight's game.