Icemen Win Two, Remain Unbeaten in ECAC

No matter how you figured it, Harvard's surprising hockey squad wasn't supposed to come out of last weekend's action unscathed.

Nightmarish visions of last year's Cornell encounter at Watson (remember when the Big Red came from a 4-1 deficit to edge Harvard 5-4 in OT?) and the ever-haunting specter of the "letdown" the night after against hapless Colgate had most fans believing that the Crimson icemen would joint the mortal ranks of the once-beaten in the ECAC by Monday morning.

But the shadow of doom never fell on Billy Cleary's speed skaters, and after the final buzzer sounded Saturday night in Watson Rink Harvard had outscored its two upstate New York opponents 18-6 in two victories to boost the team's record to 10-0 in the Eastern league. The Crimson squad outfought Cornell, 4-2, Friday night and routed Colgate, 14-4.

The Undefeated

As Harvard heads into the second half of its 20-game ECAC schedule, it remains the only undefeated team in the league. "We've been a little lucky," captain Randy Roth commented yesterday. "We've only played two really good games. The rest of the time we played just two good periods. It caught up with us out west [where Harvard lost its only two games of the season, to Michigan and St. Louis]."

The pair of solid 60-minute Crimson efforts Roth referred to came against Boston University, a devastating 7-2 rout, and Cornell last Friday night, when Jimmy Thomas's two goals and Brian Petrovek's goaltending helped dump the Big Red 4-2.

The game started out inauspiciously for the Crimson squad as the Big Red came out flying after the opening faceoff. "Cornell was physical and they came out hitting," Roth said. "We were caught by surprise. They ran all over us, but Petro [goalie Petrovek] made a couple of great saves."

Cool and Confident

Petrovek, the hottest "Petro" to hit Boston since Rico came to the Red Sox, was cool and confident in the Harvard nets throughout, and though his save total was only 22, many of those were just this side of spectacular. One of those saves came on a breakaway by Stephan Bajinsky, who came out of the penalty box to steal the puck and move in alone on Petrovek.

"I asked Petro about the play after the game," Roth said, "and he told me that he saw the blade of the guy's stick bent down and knew the guy was shooting for the upper corner. That's the kind of guy Petro is, a real student of the game."

Petrovek, as well as his counterpart in the Cornellnets, Steve Kelleher, were faced with a good deal of power play pressure as the referees called a total of 25 in the hard-hitting contest, including five situations where one team had a two-man advantage.

Harvard's premier penalty killer Thomas had a busy night, but managed to come up with a pair of goals in addition to some solid defensive play. Thomas's first goal came at 19:35 of the first period, firing from the left point to give Harvard a 2-0 lead. It followed a shot from nearly the same spot by defenseman Todd Neiland that opened the scoring.

Thomas came up with the key tally, however, at 2:14 of the third, after Cornell had come within one on Jim Vaughan's score at 19:29 of the middle stanza and had the momentum in its favor. But Harvard's tough number ten skated around Bajinski and backhanded the puck past Kelleher to crush the Big Red hopes of repeating last season's comeback performance.

Steve Dagdigian added a fourth goal for the Crimson while Harvard enjoyed a two-man advantage, and John Harper added another to Cornell's total to keep it close.

After the emotionally draining and physical Cornell contest, the Crimson squad did not have a chance to rest for long, as Colgate came into Watson Rink Saturday night. But as it turned out the Red Raiders could not match even a tired Harvard squad.

Scoring Parade

The Harvard scoring parade was led by Danny Bolduc and Leigh Hogan, each of whom had the hat trick. Thomas, Ted Thorndike and Kevin Burke each scored a pair, while Jim McMahon and Paul Haley both tallied once against Colgate goalie Kevin Berry.

Petrovek took a rest and John Aiken started in nets for Harvard coming up with 20 saves, while Berry stopped 34.

So Harvard hits the mid-point unscathed, thanks to a defensive corps and a sophomore goalie that have matured rapidly, and a veteran offensive unit. Not many expected such early success.

"At the start of the season," Roth said of his weary team, "we looked to come out a little over .500 by this time. But we've got the toughest part of the schedule coming up in February and the exam break [after Dartmouth this Wednesday] will do us some good."