Weakened Icemen Tackle Elis Tonight

On February 26, 1900, Harvard and Yale met in St. Nicholas Rink in New York City to battle each other in hockey for the first time. The Elis won that one 5-4 in a match that The Crimson described as "an extremely exciting one from start to finish, as first one team led and then the other."

At the turn of the century, Harvard was playing its hockey games on the flooded surface of Soldiers Field, and The Crimson expressed its worry before the Yale match that "the Harvard team will be at a slight disadvantage [in the St. Nicholas Rink] owing to the temperature of the rink, which is kept comparatively high by artificial means."

Bill Cleary won't have to worry about the temperature tonight at Ingalls Rink, New Haven (alias the Yale Whale), but he does have other problems to think about as Harvard and Yale meet for the 150th time.

The first and foremost of Cleary's worries will be figuring out the lineup for tonight's game. Injuries and illness will force several starters to miss the game, while several others are still in doubt. "I don't even know who's going to dress," Cleary said yesterday. "I really don't have the foggiest."

The list of walking wounded begins with co-captain Marc Noonan, who has been nursing a bum shoulder, and Kevin Carr, who could be out for as much as two weeks with torn shoulder ligaments suffered against Northeastern.

Bob Goodenow, Levy Byrd and Kevin Burke have been residing in the infirmary with the flu, and Ted Thorndike, who missed last Wednesday's game, is still under the weather. Wiz Wyatt filled in for Thorndike against the Huskies and scored the winning goal in overtime.

Left Winger

There is a ray of hope, however, as left winger Dave Gauthier will be returning to the squad tonight. Gauthier was the sixth leading scorer on the team as a sophomore last season with 22 points, on 13 goals and nine assists. "He couldn't have come back at a better time," Cleary said yesterday.

Cleary's squad will be going after the Ivy crown tonight against an erratic Yale squad that is out of the race but looking forward to a spoiler role.